Eddie Henderson Oasis

Eddie Henderson brings his working group to the British-based Sirocco label for Oasis, a rewarding straight-ahead effort. The desert theme is established on the very first track, "Dubai," an enchanting seven/four piece by Billy Drummond, the session's formidable drummer. Henderson follows this with two desert-related originals, "Oasis" and "Sandstorm," a ballad and an all-out swinger, respectively; his modal, quasi-epic "Desert Sun" concludes the program. In between are compelling versions of Wayne Shorter's fairly obscure waltz "Lost," Herbie Hancock's oft-sampled (and here, heavily reharmonized) classic "Cantaloupe Island," Lee Morgan's 1964 ballad "Melancholee," and George Cables' mellow yet funky "Why Not."

Azar Lawrence (born November 3, 1952) is an American jazz saxophonist, known for his contributions as sideman to McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, and Woody Shaw. Lawrence was the tenor saxophonist Tyner used following John Coltrane's death. Lawrence released Summer Solstice on Prestige Records in 1975, produced by Orrin Keepnews. It featured Raul de Souza, Gerald Hayes, Amaury Tristão, Dom Salvador, Ron Carter, Guilherme Franco on the songs "Novo Ano" and "Highway" which were composed by Amaury Tristão, and Lawrence, Souza, Albert Dailey, Carter and Billy Hart on all other selections.

Elvin Jones, pianist McCoy Tyner and trumpeter Miles Davis. During this period in the 1970s, Lawrence also released several critically acclaimed recordings, including Bridge Into The New Age (Prestige, 1974) and Summer Solstice (Prestige, 1975). So rapid an ascent to the peak of the jazz world may, at times, have led Lawrence to wonder how he could be playing with these giants. But teaching and instilling confidence in youth is the role of the elders in any true community, and so one day Tyner reassured Lawrence: he told the young man that he belonged in such company because he could not only play the hell out of the horn, but because he "felt the same way about the music as John (Coltrane) did."