University of Northern Colorado Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC Dissertations Student Research 12-5-2016 Joe Henderson: A Biographical Study of His Life and Career Joel Geoffrey Harris Follow this and additional works at: http://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations © 2016 JOEL GEOFFREY HARRIS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO Greeley, Colorado The Graduate School JOE HENDERSON: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF HIS LIFE AND CAREER A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Arts Joel Geoffrey Harris College of Performing and Visual Arts School of Music Jazz Studies December 2016 This Dissertation by: Joel Geoffrey Harris Entitled: Joe Henderson: A Biographical Study of His Life and Career has been approved as meeting the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Arts in the College of Performing and Visual Arts in the School of Music, Program of Jazz Studies Accepted by the Doctoral Committee __________________________________________________ H. David Caffey, M.M., Research Advisor __________________________________________________ Jim White, M.M., Committee Member __________________________________________________ Socrates Garcia, D.A., Committee Member __________________________________________________ Stephen Luttmann, M.L.S., M.A., Faculty Representative Date of Dissertation Defense ________________________________________ Accepted by the Graduate School _______________________________________________________ Linda L. Black, Ed.D. Associate Provost and Dean Graduate School and International Admissions ABSTRACT Harris, Joel. Joe Henderson: A Biographical Study of His Life and Career. Published Doctor of Arts dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, December 2016. This study provides an overview of the life and career of Joe Henderson, who was a unique presence within the jazz musical landscape. It provides detailed biographical information, as well as discographical information and the appropriate context for Henderson’s two-hundred sixty-seven recordings. His life is presented in the following categories: Early Years; Blue Note Period; Milestone Period; Intervening Years; and Verve Period. Thorough study and collation of published materials produced the framework of this document, while original interviews with those knowledgeable of Henderson’s life and career provided insight into his personality and career decisions. The resulting body of research is the first and only thorough study of Henderson, and it provides critical historical contributions to jazz scholarship. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my wonderful wife, Briana Harris, to whom I am deeply indebted for her support and understanding throughout this process. I wish to thank my research advisor, Professor David Caffey, as well as Dr. Socrates Garcia, Professor Stephen Luttmann and Professor Jim White, who generously served on the dissertation committee. I wish to thank Professor Dana Landry, who has provided me with valuable instruction and opportunities during my tenure at the University. I wish to thank everyone who contributed to this project, including all of the interviewees who showed me patience and kindness. I wish to thank Mr. Malcolm Daniel for his willingness to consult on this document. Lastly, I wish to thank Mrs. Kelsey Shiba, whose tireless efforts facilitate projects such as this. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………........ 1 Purpose………………………………………………………………….. 1 Need for Study………………………………………………………….. 2 II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE……………………………… 4 Summary………………………………………………………………... 6 III. METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………... 7 IV. BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY…………………………………………….. 9 Early Years (1937-1961)……………………………………………….. 9 Childhood in Lima, Ohio……………………………………….... 9 College and Detroit………………………………………………. 15 Military Service………………………………………………….. 18 Blue Note Period (1962-1966).................................................................. 19 Arrival in New York City............................................................... 19 Initial Albums for Blue Note Records............................................ 21 The Horace Silver Quintet.............................................................. 40 Big Band Formation and Final Months at Blue Note Records....... 61 Milestone Period (1967-1976)………………………………………….. 68 Time of Transition……………………………………………….. 68 Milestone Records……………………………………………….. 72 The Herbie Hancock Sextet……………………………………… 85 Continued Work with Milestone………………………………… 95 Blood, Sweat & Tears……………………………………………. 103 v Intervening Years (1977-1990)………………………………………….. 122 Freelance Period………………………………………………….. 122 The State of the Tenor……………………………………………. 139 The Female Band………………………………………………… 143 Continued Efforts……………………………………………….... 152 Verve Period (1991-2001)………………………………………………. 159 Transition to Verve Records……………………………………... 159 The Composer Songbook Projects……………………………….. 162 Final Years……………………………………………………….. 189 V. CONCLUSION AND TRIBUTE……………………………………….. 192 Summary……………………………………………………………….... 193 Tribute………………………………………………………………….... 194 SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY………………………………………….. 199 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………….. 204 APPENDIX A: INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD APPROVAL…. 217 vi 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Purpose Joe Henderson is an established member of the jazz canon of composers and performers, and he is frequently referenced in jazz academia. The number of jazz programs at the university level grows every year, and there is every indication that the subject area will be taught in perpetuity. Given these circumstances, it is completely reasonable to assume that Henderson will be referenced in jazz classrooms well into the future; therefore, he will be studied by many generations of students and scholars. Furthermore, future studies might increasingly focus on the details of Henderson’s life as jazz academia continues to expand into the musicological realm. This document is the first thorough, published study of Henderson’s life and career. Future students and scholars will benefit from the original interview excerpts contained in this document, as they convey valuable insights from those with firsthand experience with Henderson and his career. Henderson was born in 1937, and his contemporaries will not be with us for many more years. The collection of their memories and impressions is an essential service to jazz scholarship. Printed documents from Henderson’s life are also becoming increasingly inaccessible, as library archives gradually become damaged or go missing. Tangential print materials not found in 2 libraries are now extremely difficult to locate, and may become virtually extinct in the near future. This project preserves all of these elements, and provides future researchers with the most current bibliographical listing of existing materials on the subject. Need for Study Joe Henderson is widely recognized as a major figure in jazz, particularly among tenor saxophonists. Michael Brecker and Joe Lovano openly acknowledge Henderson’s influence on their musical development. His high level of technique and his unique approach to the instrument have taken hold in today’s jazz community. Furthermore, his prolific recording career, which included over two-hundred sixty album credits, disseminated his music to a large audience. The need for study is clearly demonstrated by the lack of biographical material surrounding Henderson’s life. There have been no thorough biographies in dissertation or any other format published to date. Two dissertations contain biographical portions but primarily focus on analysis of his music. Other sources include articles in periodicals such as Downbeat, Jazz Journal International, and Jazz Educators Journal. These pieces are usually brief and informal, and house biographical information within a feature piece on a then-current Henderson project. Obituaries, record reviews and liner material provide small amounts of biographical information, and are often listed as sources for the above-mentioned publications. If Henderson is mentioned at all in most traditional jazz history textbooks, it is within the context of his sideman experiences with little emphasis on his life and solo career. 3 The true impetus behind this project is the knowledge that those familiar with Henderson’s life will not be among us forever. Many friends, fellow musicians, producers, family members and others with firsthand accounts of his life had not been previously interviewed on this topic. It would be a tragedy for the jazz community if these stories were permanently lost. 4 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Dissertations George Weremchuk This dissertation offers no biographical information on Henderson, and includes a transcription and brief analysis of Henderson’s solo on “Night and Day” from his album Inner Urge. Arthur Lynn White White’s dissertation contains thirteen pages of biographical information. What he lacks in depth he makes up for in his thorough citation process. It should be noted that the biographical portion does not contain any previously unknown information. As the title implies, his document focuses primarily on musical analysis of “Recorda-Me,” “Black Narcissus” and “Inner Urge.” Sundar Viswanathan Viswanathan’s document is extremely thorough, and spans five-hundred forty pages. He included original interviews with Ron Carter, Andrew Hill, Ron McClure and Pete Yellin. The downside of Viswanathan’s sixty-seven page biographical portion is that it is comprised of previously published information