Ernie Henry

Ernie Henry - Last Chorus (1957) {Riverside OJCCD-1906-2 rel 1998} (featuring Lee Morgan)
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© 1956-57, 1998 Riverside / OJC / Fantasy | OJCCD-1906-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Saxophone

Ernie Henry was one of Riverside's earliest "discoveries." He recorded for the label, as a leader and as a sideman with Thelonious Monk and Kenny Dorham, for little more than a year before his sudden death at the end of 1957. The brilliant and unrealized promise of the young alto saxophonist, which was just beginning to be recognized (he was with Dizzy Gillespie's big band when he died), was dramatically exhibited on this final collection, one side of which is from an unfinished album featuring good friends and colleagues like Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones.

Ernie Henry - Presenting Ernie Henry (1956) {Riverside OJCCD-1920-2 rel 1999}
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© 1956, 1999 Riverside Records / Fantasy | OJCCD-1920-2
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Saxophone

For those of you who don't know this underrated alto saxophonist, Ernie Henry is most widely known as one of the sidemen on Thelonious Monk's classic Brilliant Corners . Sadly he made only two albums as a leader (and another of posthumously released outtakes and alternates, Last Chorus ) before his untimely death at the age of 31 in 1957. This album, "Presenting Ernie Henry," is his first, cut at two sessions in August of 1956, and featuring a quintet of Henry, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Kenny Drew on piano, Wilbur Ware on bass and Art Taylor on drums. Get a good listen to a player who left this world all too soon, before his CDs disappear too.

Ernie Henry - Seven Standards And A Blues (1957) {Riverside OJCCD-1722-2 rel 1992}
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© 1957, 1992 Riverside Records / Fantasy | OJCCD-1722-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Saxophone

Recorded just three months before his unexpected death, this set by altoist Ernie Henry is his definitive album as a leader. Henry, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Philly Joe Jones do indeed play seven standards (including "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Soon" and "I've Got the World on a String"), plus a Henry blues ("Specific Gravity"). Superior modern mainstream music, but there should have been much more from the potentially significant Ernie Henry."

Matthew Gee (1925-1979), who belatedly had the opportunity to record this album, “Jazz by Gee!,” his first and only one as a leader, in 1956, was one of many talented jazzmen who earned the solid and lasting respect of his peers without ever achieving the public recognition they clearly deserved. Leonard Feather described Gee as one of the “best and most underrated of bop-influenced trombonists.”

Art Blakey & James Moody - New Sounds (1948) {Blue Note, Ron McMaster rel 1991}
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© 1947-48, 1991 Blue Note / Capitol-EMI | CDP 7 84436 2
Jazz / Bop / Drums / Saxophone

This historically significant LP collects together two sessions led by tenor saxophonist James Moody in 1948 (when he was a member of Dizzy Gillespie's big band) along with drummer Art Blakey's first recording date as a leader. Moody's music features boppish arrangements by Gil Fuller and solos by trumpeter Dave Burns, altoist Ernie Henry, and baritonist Cecil Payne, while the Blakey set (originally released under the title of Art Blakey's Messengers) features an octet that includes trumpeter Kenny Dorham, altoist Sahib Shihab, and pianist Walter Bishop. Classic and rare music.