Free Republic

The tenor saxophonist’s third Blue Note album blurred the lines between straight-ahead and progressive jazz.By the time Joe Henderson arrived at Rudy Van Gelder’s New Jersey recording facility in April 1964 to record his third Blue Note album, In ‘N Out, the 27-year-old saxophonist – who only twelve months earlier had made his debut as a sideman on trumpeter Kenny Dorham’s Una Mas LP – was known as an accomplished studio musician. The numerous sessions he logged during his first year with the iconic Big Apple jazz label – ranging from Lee Morgan’s The Sidewinder to Andrew Hill’s Point...

The only studio album he recorded for Blue Note is one of jazz’s most important albums.The crowning glory of Eric Dolphy’s career was 1964’s earth-shaking Out to Lunch, the only album he recorded for Blue Note. The cruel irony was that he didn’t live to see its release. Out to Lunch neither bound itself to bop nor fully embraced free-blowing. It was its own particular beast, arriving at the forefront of what some called the New Thing in mid-’60s jazz. The players – Dolphy on alto sax, flute, and bass clarinet; trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Richard...