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 Joe Henderson (born 1937)
Page One Joe Henderson is always in the middle of a great solo. He's a thematic player, working his way round the structure of a composition with methodical intensity, but he's a masterful licks player too, with a seemingly limitless stock of phrases that he can turn to the advantage of any post-bop setting: this gives his best improvisations a balance of surprise, immediacy and coherence which few other saxophonists can surpass. His lovely tone, which combines softness and plangency in a similar way, is another pleasing aspect of his music. Page One was his first date as a leader, and it still stands as one of the most popular Blue Notes of the early 1960s. Henderson had not long since arrived in New York after being discharged from the army, and this six-theme set is very much the work of a new star on the scene. Tyner, Warren and La Roca are a rhythm section who seldom played together but they do very well here, as does the erratic Dorham. Recorda Me, whose Latinate lilt has made it a staple blowing vehicle for hard-bop bands, had its debut here, and the very fine tenor solo on Dorham's Blue Bossa explains much of why Henderson was creating excitement. But everything here is impressively handled.
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 John Coltrane (1926-1967)
Giant Steps A fresh start, almost a debut album. The tunes are uniformly marvellous, riffs or steps or even melodies which have all -except for Spiral- become integral parts of the modern jazz book. Coltrane's tone has lost some of its remorselessness, and it gives the ballad Naima a movingly simple lyrical intent. It's almost like an interlude on Coltrane's journey, this record, a summing up of past achievements in sparer, easier forms, before the great step forward of the next few years. Giant Steps itself has a sunny quality which its rising theme embodies; Mr. P.C. is a blowing blues which is idiomatic enough to have become the most frequently blown blues in the repertoire. Syeeda's Song Flute explores the possibilities of a single long line. There is very able support from Flanagan, Chambers and Taylor, and the CD edition includes five alternative takes. This is perhaps Coltrane's most playable, memorable and best sustained record.
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