JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
Rating: 
The first time I played my new Joe Henderson in Japan CD, when I heard the first strains of Round Midnight drift over the speakers, my first reaction was “Oh, no. Not again.”
If there’s any standard that receives undue reverence, it’s Round Midnight. Oh, I know it’s a great song, but if you’re going to cover it for the 1000th time, you’d better have something new and significant to bring to the conversation, and 99% of the time, it’s the same old mopey tired interpretation. Not this time.
The first thing I noticed was that this Round Midnight was more aggressive than usual, taken at a standard swing tempo, instead of being played as a dirge. The bassist (Kunimitsu Inaba) really digs into the notes, giving the tune a vitality I thought had deserted it long ago. The second thing I noticed was Hideo Ichikawa’s electric piano.
The sheer fact of the electric piano brings something new to the party, but Ichikawa’s playing is novel, full of unfamiliar ideas, which is only natural since he’s Japanese and doesn’t play on this side of the pond. He’s not as precise and methodical as a Herbie Hancock or a Chick Corea, but he’s perfect for this tune and this date, providing a little welcome creative anarchy.
Henderson (tenor sax) actually starts out the tune unaccompanied by the band. He initially sounds almost sleepy, but responds to the energy of his band and the enthusiasm and obvious appreciation of the live audience by dialing up the intensity as the tune goes on. It’s not that Henderson is doing anything stylistically all that different from what you can find on other Milestone releases of the period. All the usual tricks are in evidence, the bebop lines, the arpeggiation, the trills outside the normal range of instrument, the honking. It’s just that Henderson gets deeper and sounds more gutsy that usual.
That vibe extends to the band’s cover of the other standard on the date, the thankfully less ubiquitous Blue Bossa. There’s a perfectly fine rendition of Henderson’s own In’n'Out, retitled Out’n'In, but the real find here is the original that closes the recording, Junk Blues.
By the time the bassist and the drummer (Motohiko Hino) work up an balls out uptempo one chord groove, the crowd is already jazzed before Henderson has a chance to even play a note. These guys aren’t leaving anything on the table and the crowd knows it. Ichikawa joins in on electric piano, harmonizing around that one chord, laying down crunchy accents here and there. The rhythm section feeds each other ideas, taking the tune where it wants to go.
With a rhythm section this dynamic and engaged, how can Henderson lose? He doesn’t miss the opportunity, giving us one of his most fiery and committed performances on record.
Then it’s Ichikawa’s turn for a solo statement. He just throws out idea after idea, like there’s an inexhaustible supply, which maybe is true for him. Again, what he lacks in precision and development skills, he makes up for in sheer youthful energy and invention.
Bassist Kunimitsu Inaba gets his turn in the spotlight and he doesn’t waste it, at first providing a propulsively rhythmic solo before slowing down the tempo for a bit, with Ichikawa providing tasteful atmospheric washes on keyboard. Following Kunimitsu’s lead, Motohiko Hino’s doesn’t stick to the groove during his drum solo, but explores the implications of the rhythmic variations the band had just improvised, using his whole kit in the process.
And then it’s back into the maelstrom with the whole band surging ahead, bringing the fourteen minute plus group improvisation, and the date, to a rousing finish.
