Hey there, Sorry State Gang. It’s good to be back writing in these pages after missing last week’s newsletter. I had my Covid-19 booster along with a flu shot and it knocked me out for the best part of a day and a half. Feeling much better now and not looking forward to getting the next booster. Can we be done with this damn thing already?
The week before was Thanksgiving week and of course the dreaded Black Friday sales weekend. The perceived wisdom is that there wasn’t too much to get excited over on the Record Store Day releases, but I don’t know; I thought there were some good titles worth grabbing. The Jimi Hendrix Experience live in Paris was cool. The Wailing Souls album with bonus 12” also very cool. I thought the compilation of dark and heavy psychedelic soul from Now & Again had some good stuff on it. There were some other things too that interested me, but with a hold pile building up and an empty pantry at home, my funds were and are needed elsewhere. LOL.
As we approach the holidays and gift buying season, we have been doing our best to stuff the bins at the store with as many good records as we can. We have been buying collections and processing them like nobody’s business and have so many awesome records for our in-store customers. Get yourself down here if you can.
One collection that Daniel bought has certainly put me in a lot of trouble. It contained among other things a lot of good 1970s UK Jazz and Prog albums and I wish I could have bought most of them. I pulled out a couple of tasty biscuits for myself, which once they officially become mine, I’ll feel good about talking about and will feature in a future staff pick, perhaps.
One that I have bought and is mine now was a copy of Inside Out by Eddie Henderson on Capricorn Records from 1974. It’s a nice jazz fusion LP and his second album as a band leader. As I have some of his other records in my collection already and like them a lot, it seems like talking about him here in the newsletter would be a good idea as I am sure there are plenty of you out there who like your jazz as well as your punk.
Eddie Henderson plays trumpet and flugelhorn and made a string of great records in the 1970s that all have their merits. His career certainly didn’t end there as he continued making records well into the 2000s and garnering critical praise as he went along. It is those records from the 70s that are considered his prime years by most and have become quite collectable.
Before getting into talking about those records, it is worth noting what an amazing and accomplished human being Eddie Henderson is. His biography is quite outstanding.
Born in New York City in 1940 to show business parents, Dad was a singer in popular group The Charioteers and Mum was a dancer in the original Cotton Club. Exposed to music at a young age, he famously received a lesson from Louis Armstrong aged nine. At fourteen, his family moved to San Francisco where later he studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
However, music wasn’t the only thing on his mind. Henderson went on to study medicine. His step-father was a doctor who had several jazz legends as patients, including John Coltrane, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. Miles was a friend of the family and stayed over on his west coast trips and mentored Eddie on his musical studies. Davis certainly had a huge influence on Henderson. His fusion of jazz styles with other music fascinated the young Henderson and years later he would make very similar records to that of his mentor.
Henderson’s medical schooling began after his three-year stint in the Air Force ended in 1961 at the University of California, Berkeley, although not before he also competed as a figure skater, becoming the first African American to compete for a national title. He left Berkeley with a B.S. in Zoology and continued at Howard University, Washington D.C., graduating in 1968. Whilst at Howard he made regular trips to New York to watch and play with the musicians there. He was friends with both Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan and took tips from both.
Intending to carry on his career as a doctor with emphasis on psychiatry, he returned to San Fran for an internship and residency, during which he scored a weeklong gig playing with Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band. This led to him joining the band and playing on three Herbie Hancock records over the next three years beginning with Mwandishi from 1971, then Crossings in 1972 (both on Warner Brothers Records), and finally Sextant on Columbia from 1973. It was with these same Mwandishi musicians that Henderson recorded his first two albums as leader. The first came in 1973 with Realization released on Capricorn Records and the second the following year, which is the Inside Out album I snagged. If you are a fan of those Herbie records and enjoy that style of electronic Jazz-Fusion, then there is lots to love with the Henderson albums. As I mentioned before, Miles Davis was a huge influence on Henderson, and you wouldn’t be wrong thinking you were listening to a Bitches Brew session or another of Miles’ great late 1960s and early 1970s recordings. They really are that good and with the pedigree of Herbie Hancock and his musicians playing on them, how can they not be?
In 1975 Henderson switched labels and released the album Sunburst on Blue Note, again using many of the musicians from the Herbie Hancock bands and also with George Duke playing a variety of keys and synths. The following year, he released the album Heritage also on Blue Note. That record has Patrice Rushen playing on it and the Headhunters rhythm section. Patrice Rushen would provide vocals and appear on his later Capitol albums also. These two Blue Note records are excellent also but have a slightly different sound to the earlier two on Capricorn. Things are getting funky with more accessible melodies. For these albums, the obvious comparison would be to records made by Donald Byrd during this period, a Blue Note label mate, as opposed to the Hancock/Davis influence of the first two.
From 1977 through 1979 Henderson cut three records for Capitol, starting with Comin’ Through, then Mahal and finally one called Runnin’ To Your Love. Capitol wasn’t exactly famous for their jazz roster and these records have more of a disco funk vibe than jazz. At the time, this wasn’t received particularly favorably by the critics, who thought them too mainstream. However, the listening public thought differently, particularly in the U.K., where the tracks Say You Will from Comin’ Through and Prance On from 1978’s Mahal were club hits. The sounds from these records would influence future hip-hop producers and acid-jazz musicians in the years to come.
A special mention also must be given to the man who produced, engineered and mixed most, if not all, of these great records and his name is Skip Drinkwater. In addition to the Eddie Henderson records, he worked on albums by Norman Connors and Alphonse Mouzon and discovered the group Catalyst, another jazz funk group. Interestingly, he also produced the all-black Heavy Metal group Sound Barrier.
It’s funny because many, many years ago I wouldn’t have like these records much. I thought proper jazz came from the 1950s and 60s and didn’t much care for jazz fusion or jazz funk. For those of you familiar with the comedy show The Mighty Boosh, you might remember Noel Fielding’s character Vince Noir hating jazz-funk in a very funny bit. I thought I was more like him then, but now seem to be more like Julian Barratt’s character Howard Moon. Yes sir, me sir, you are correct sir. Here at Sorry State, it feels like an episode from that show sometimes with me trying to turn Jeff on to jazz. LMAO.
Alright, we have an early deadline this week so that will have to do for now. Go check out Eddie Henderson, the Jazz Funk Surgeon and discover what a total bad ass he is and listen to his beautiful spacey, dark, spiritual, groovy and darn funky music. See you next time.
Cheers - Dom
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