Joe Henderson: His Long & Unknown First Audio Interview

Here is another in our series of interviews conducted for Swedish radio by the late Claes Dahlgren. You can find biographical information about him, and the other interviews, by using the Index. Dahlgren was a pioneer, because in many cases his interviews are the earliest to be recorded with the artist in question. That is the case with today’s 26-minute interview with the influential and original saxophonist Joe Henderson (1937-2001). This has never been heard outside of Sweden, and never heard anywhere in this long version.

As is often the case, we don’t know the date that Dahlgren conducted the interview, but we know the date that he wrote his narration, his script. It was July 30, 1964, which means that the interview was almost certainly conducted earlier that month. Henderson had recently joined Horace Silver’s quintet. He toured with Silver from about June of 1964 through about February of 1966, first alongside Carmell Jones on trumpet and then with Woody Shaw. He was featured on Silver’s popular album Song For My Father, recorded in October 1964.

As with the other interviews, some edits were made as it was being prepared for broadcast. For example in this long first segment you’ll hear an edit in Dahlgren’s question at 4:55, and there’s a 12-second gap at 8:25. But don’t worry—Henderson’s words that were cut from the first part are in the second part below.

In this long first section, Joe talks about his beginnings in music, about working with Kenny Dorham, at 6:50 about freedom in music, at 8:45 about composing. At 10’ he talks about a piece he wrote in 1960 for big band plus strings and voices—that would be amazing to hear some day. And at 12’ he talks about Lester Young, Hawkins, Rollins, and at length about Coltrane. At 16:20, he discusses the exposure he gets from touring with Silver. At the end, Claes introduces a recording (to be added in later) and then off-mike he asks Joe if he pronounced the title correctly—”Was that close?” Enjoy this first part:

The second audio clip begins with Henderson discussing his interest in classical music. Then he talks about working in Detroit with Donald Byrd, Sonny Stitt, and others. At 2’ he talks about New York City, at 2:50’ he discusses going “out” musically, and at 6’ he expresses his delight at working with Silver:

We are able to hear this recording thanks to the generosity of The Claes Dahlgren Collection at The Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research (Svenskt visarkiv). I want to personally thank Wictor Johansson, head of the audiovisual collections, and Jörgen Adolfsson, research archivist and musician, for their kind assistance.

Please Note that permission was given for the audio to appear in this newsletter Only —no other copying or publishing of this recording is allowed without prior approval. Let us all please honor this, in which case more interviews will be coming your way. (I promise you that I have some additional amazing ones lined up!) In short, do not post the audio of this interview anywhere else—but please do share the link to this page with everyone you know! (If you see the word “Share” below, just click on that.)

If you’d like to hear more of Henderson speaking, here is a talk he gave for jazz students in 1985 at North Texas State University (now called the University of North Texas).

All the best,
Lewis