Inner Urge (Joe Henderson album)

Inner Urge
Studio album by
Joe Henderson
ReleasedEnd of March 1966[1]
RecordedNovember 30, 1964
StudioVan Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs
Genre
Length43:14
LabelBlue Note
BST 84189
ProducerAlfred Lion
Joe Henderson chronology
In 'n Out
(1964) 		Inner Urge
(1966) 		Mode for Joe
(1966)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
All About Jazz(very favorable)[4]
AllMusic[2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[3]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[5]

Inner Urge is an album by the jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson, released in 1966 via Blue Note Records, his fourth recorded as a leader. It was recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on November 30, 1964. Featuring Henderson along with pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones (both members of the John Coltrane quartet at this time), and bassist Bob Cranshaw (a member of Sonny Rollins' band).[6][7]

Compositions

Jazz critic Nat Hentoff interviewed Henderson for the album's original liner notes essay, and Henderson described the creative impulses behind several of the songs to Hentoff. The title track, "Inner Urge," which has since become a jazz standard, was a reflection of a time in his life when Henderson was "coping with the anger and frustration that can come of trying to find your way in the maze of New York, and of trying to adjust the pace you have to set in hacking your way in that city in order to just exist." Henderson also told Hentoff that "Isotope" is a tribute to Thelonious Monk and Monk's use of musical humor. Hentoff writes elsewhere in the liner notes that "El Barrio" represents Henderson's attachment to the "Spanish musical ethos", and that the piece was inspired by Henderson reflecting on his childhood in Lima, Ohio. Henderson is quoted as saying that he gave the other musicians "two simple chords, B minor and C major 7 (B phrygian)", and asked them "to play something with a Spanish feeling" while he improvised a melody for the piece.[8]

Reception

In a review on All About Jazz, Norman Weinstein calls Inner Urge Henderson's, "most emotionally urgent album" and the "ultimate showcase of his distinguished career . . . . The album seems like an apotheosis of hard bop, a ruthlessly probing amplification of a typical, hard-blowing, Blue Note bop session, pushing bop formulas as far as they could be pushed. As such, I consider it not only one of the best dozen Blue Note sessions ever released, I hear it as one of the major statements of jazz in the '60s, actually recreating the political, economic, and social realities of the turbulent times more precisely than most recorded music of the '60s in any style. An absolutely essential listen and a major masterpiece."[9]

The Penguin Guide to Jazz described the music as "dark and intense".[3]

Track listing

All compositions by Joe Henderson, except where noted.

  1. "Inner Urge" – 11:58
  2. "Isotope" – 9:15
  3. "El Barrio" – 7:15
  4. "You Know I Care" (Duke Pearson) – 7:22
  5. "Night and Day" (Cole Porter) – 7:24

Personnel

Musicians

Recording personnel

Charts

Chart performance for Inner Urge
Chart (2022) Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[10] 194
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[11] 189
Scottish Albums (OCC)[12] 73

References

  1. ^ Billboard Apr 9, 1966
  2. ^ Gioffre, Daniel. "Inner Urge – Joe Henderson | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  3. ^ a b Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2006) [1992]. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (8th ed.). New York: Penguin. p. 627. ISBN 0-14-102327-9.
  4. ^ Weinstein, Norman (2 July 2004). "Joe Henderson: Inner Urge". allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  5. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 100. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  6. ^ James Beaudreau. "Review at PopMatters". Retrieved 2007-07-29. On November 30, 1964, nine days before John Coltrane would record A Love Supreme in the same room, late tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson brought two-thirds of Coltrane's rhythm section (and bassist Bob Cranshaw) into Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio and recorded an under-recognized masterpiece.
  7. ^ James Beaudreau. "Review at Allmusic". Retrieved 2007-07-29. He is joined on Inner Urge by veterans of other combos: McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones from John Coltrane's unit and Sonny Rollins sideman Bob Cranshaw
  8. ^ Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff
  9. ^ Jazz, All About. "Joe Henderson: Inner Urge album review @ All About Jazz". All About Jazz. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  10. ^ "Ultratop.be – Joe Henderson – Inner Urge" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  11. ^ "Ultratop.be – Joe Henderson – Inner Urge" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  12. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved February 26, 2022.