Eddie Henderson - Sunburst

Look at who Eddie Henderson got into Wally Heider's studio in San Francisco in March and April of 1975. George Duke on Fender Rhodes, clavinet, Mini-Moog and two different ARPs. Bennie Maupin on tenor, saxello and bass clarinet. Julian Priester on alto trombone and post horn. Alphonso Johnson on electric bass, Harvey Mason and Billy Hart splitting the drum chair, Buster Williams on upright, and Bobby Hutcherson on marimbas. That is not a session, it is a summit.

Sunburst was Henderson's first record for Blue Note, and he handed most of the writing to the room. Duke's "Explodition" opens it, Alphonso Johnson brought "The Kumquat Kids" and "Involuntary Bliss," Harvey Mason wrote "Hop Scotch," and Maupin closes the album with "We End In A Dream." Henderson's own "Sunburst" and "Galaxy" are the center of gravity, all trumpet and flugelhorn riding over Duke's banks of synthesizers. It has been a jazz-funk and rare groove staple for decades.

Henderson is one of the more unusual figures in the music. He took an informal lesson from Louis Armstrong at nine, met Miles Davis at seventeen through his parents, then finished medical school at Howard and worked as a physician for years alongside a recording career that included three years in Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band. He has taught at Juilliard and Oberlin since.

The sleeve deserves a mention too. Bob Cato art directed a Ren Deaton photograph that was run through what the back cover calls a computer conversion, credited to C. D. Taylor. In 1975 that was close to science fiction, and it still looks like nothing else on the label.

Original 1975 US Blue Note pressing, catalog BN-LA464-G.

Used copy: VG vinyl / VG+ sleeve