Power to the People

(Milestone)

Somehow, Joe Henderson’s 1969 LP Power to the People, one of the tenor saxophonist’s greatest masterpieces, has previously eluded reissue on CD, except for appearing in a pricey eight-disc Henderson box more than a decade ago.

It’s tempting to see the neglect as a reflection of the general indifference that Henderson, forged in the crucible of Detroit’s late-’50s jazz scene, faced for much of his career. Though he became an unlikely star in the decade before his death in 1991 at age 64, the public and a depressing number of critics slept on his innovations for decades. But musicians always knew the truth, and Power to the People has always resonated strongly with them.

It offers a potent distillation of Henderson’s abstract rhythmic and harmonic language, and paced by the loose, splashily interactive rhythm section of pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jack DeJohnette, the music remains a model for edgy exploration rooted in tradition: the disciplined balance of freedom and form.

The album also finds Henderson — and jazz itself — turning a corner. Recorded at the dawn of the fusion era, the two signature tracks, “Power to the People” and “Afro-Centric” (both by Henderson), are open and aggressive jazz-rock structures with jittery grooves, electric bass and piano and a zeitgeist vibe. Miles Davis recorded “Bitches Brew” about 12 weeks later. Henderson channels his famously slippery rhythmic language and — phrases pop out of his horn like silly string — into the stream-of-consciousness flights, full of suspended time and flickering broadsides, that would define his mature style. (Trumpeter Mike Lawrence, a talented but obscure figure who died young, is a fine foil on both numbers.)

—Mark Stryker

Detroit Free Press