Inner Urge cover

Inner Urge

Released

Henderson’s fourth album for Blue Note was his most intense and hard-bitten. The band included pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Elvin Jones, and the compositions were sometimes little more than sketches. On the album’s best track, “El Barrio,” he asked them to “play something with a Spanish feeling” using just two chords while he improvised a melody (and a raucous, crying solo introduction). The result is astonishing for 1964; in some ways, it points to what David S. Ware would be doing in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
1+1 cover

1+1

Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock
Out to Lunch cover

Out to Lunch

Eric Dolphy
Open Sesame cover

Open Sesame

Freddie Hubbard
Double Demon cover

Double Demon

Starlicker
Momentum Space cover

Momentum Space

Elvin Jones, Cecil Taylor, Dewey Redman
The Dark Keys cover

The Dark Keys

Branford Marsalis
Organic Vibes cover

Organic Vibes

Joey DeFrancesco
Astral Traveling cover

Astral Traveling

Lonnie Liston Smith
Nocturne cover

Nocturne

Charlie Haden, Gonzalo Rubalcaba