Allen Michie on Nostr: Jazztodon artist of the week: Joe Henderson! “I’ve done some free things because ...

Jazztodon artist of the week: Joe Henderson! “I’ve done some free things because there’s a part of me that is a bit of an iconoclast and was especially so at that time. Part of the spirit then was just to reject all that stuff like bar lines and key signatures. Part of the thing then was just to get up on the bandstand. I just said, ‘Let's play' and didn’t want to interfere by even suggesting a title for a tune. We'd just start playing and see what came out of it. We'd be able to deal with it and figure out afterwards what we did. It was such an interesting time and I don’t understand why that spirit didn’t have a longer life. Today there doesn't seem to be too much interest in that free spirit of jazz where you just play and you don’t have to have gone to this or that university to ensure we all know similar things so we can make music together. That idea of saying, 'If you play saxophone, come on up and we’ll figure out something’ seems gone now."