The format of this session is typical of a large range of production from Blue Note – an admirable rhythm section providing a showcase for a small front line.
Kenny Dorham’s trumpet work is well known, but usually as second man rather than leader of any group. Joe Henderson is a young tenor player who has grown and is expressing himself in the manner of John Coltrane. McCoy Tyner’s piano is almost an essential to these groups. The material is typical, providing unlimited opportunity for these extremely serious musicians to browse and exercise at length.
Coltrane’s influence is discernible not only in the work of Joe Henderson but throughout this record, and like almost everything he does himself, we cannot escape from his gravity and passion. Like many another record, in this same form, it is not one to remember after a few brief hearings. Not great by any means, but it is a real working session, and a chart of the development of several jazz musicians.
Discography
In ’N Out; Punjab (20 min) – Serenity; Short Story; Brown’s Town (20½ min)
Kenny Dorham (tpt); Joe Henderson (ten); McCoy Tyner (p); Richard Davis (bs); Elvin Jones (d).
(Blue Note 4166 12inLP 42s. 6d.)
