Joe Henderson – Inner Urge (UHQCD)

At the age of 27, tenor saxophonist and composer Joe Henderson was already in his artistic prime when he recorded “Inner Urge”, his fourth album for Blue Note. His first three albums – “Page One”, “Our Thing” and “In ‘N Out” – were quintet recordings featuring Henderson accompanied by his frequent collaborator, trumpeter Kenny Dorham. For “Inner Urge”, however, Henderson opted for a quartet lineup that featured him as the sole horn player. The extraordinary lineup included two members of the groundbreaking John Coltrane Quartet—pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones—as well as Blue Note veteran Bob Cranshaw on bass. “Inner Urge” presents two timeless Henderson compositions that later became standards: the intense title track and the cheerful blues “Isotope”, a tribute to Thelonious Monk. The third Henderson original, the moving “El Barrio,” is followed by a breathtakingly beautiful ballad version of Duke Pearson’s “You Know I Care” before the album ends with a fast-paced, upbeat version of the Cole Porter standard “Night And Day”.

As part of the extremely popular “Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series” Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for Blue Note US’s analog reissues such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited Japan only UHQCD with OBI stripe. The original recording session for “Inner Urge” took place on November 30, 1964, at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan’s first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.

Lista pieselor

UHQCD ß

1. Inner Urge

2. Isotope

3. El Barrio

4. You Know I Care

5. Night And Day