Born in 1937 in Lima, Ohio, Henderson first heard jazz through listening
to his older brother's record collection. He studied at Wayne State
University in Detroit, then was drafted for two years into the military.
Henderson moved to New York after his discharge in 1962.
He joined the bands of trumpeter Kenny Dorham and pianist Horace Silver,
eventually leading his own hard bop group that included trumpeter
Freddie Hubbard, then working with the group Blood, Sweat & Tears with
pianist Herbie Hancock.
Rhythm and melody are a common link between the music of jazz and Brazil. It is more evident in the lineage to jazz since African roots are embedded into the fibers of its rhythms. A case can be made for the Caribbean influence, which, of course, is the explanation in regard to the rhythmic portions of jazz music. But Brazil comes sharper into focus because of melody and rhythm combined. Jazz musicians have always had an aura for melodic line to further explore the possibilities of complex chord changes and various interpolations of a particular disciplined piece of written music. Brazilian music has more than been able to provide this distinction with its overwhelming abundance of lines from all over the vast Country to provide an enormous amount of material for the jazz musician to rearrange and use as his canvas of improvisation.
Joe Henderson has found the key to the heart of Antonio Carlos Jobim's body of work and has made his extensions to some of the most memorable lines ever penned in the history of written modern music. Henderson has a great deal of respect for the Master. He never oversteps his art for the sake of "cutting" Jobim. It's not as if they are facing off axe to axe the way it was once done at "Minton's Playhouse." What we have with Mr. Henderson is a way of interpreting, through his own skill and personality, expressing in his individual musical language what he has heard in Mr. Jobim's wonderful music. He has done this in the most classical way any jazz musician can do. With great taste and staying within the framework, Joe Henderson lauds vigorously the original melody while still expressing his own personal sentiment.
To help us better see beyond the perfection of the melodic integrity is Mr. Henderson's vision of what he has heard. Think of it as a double art format: The original creation of Mr. Jobim followed by the vision and portrayal by Mr. Henderson.