Henderson’s Got Plenty of Gershwin

Joe Henderson and George Gershwin would have made an interesting combination.

Gershwin was a lover of jazz and a compositional innovator. Henderson, fond of Gershwin’s music from his earliest playing days, is a similarly probing seeker after new musical horizons. A duet between them, with Gershwin’s ever-busy piano style countering Henderson’s warm, probing tenor saxophone playing, might have produced some entrancing music.

That’s never going to happen, of course. But there is, nonetheless, a certain appropriateness to the fact that Henderson is one of the first in an anticipated line of performers who will spend the rest of the year celebrating the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s birth on Sept. 26.

Henderson’s unique take on Gershwin’s now-classic opera, “Porgy and Bess,” was released in the fall on Verve, and he has been touring ever since with ensembles similar to the all-star unit that appears on the album. Henderson’s affection for Gershwin is on full display during an engagement at the Jazz Bakery that started Tuesday with a performance that touches on “Porgy and Bess” and the Gershwin songbook.

But it hasn’t been an easy path. When Henderson initially explored the idea of doing a Gershwin project, he had a considerably broader perspective in mind.

“When the suggestion came up to do some Gershwin, I didn’t want to narrow it down to just ‘Porgy and Bess,’ ” he said. “Not that I had any problem with ‘Porgy and Bess,’ which I think is an absolutely magnificent reinterpretation, or a re-imagining, of African American experience through Gershwin’s European kind of education.”

“Anyhow,” continued Henderson, “I said, ‘OK, let’s see how it goes.’ And we started doing some tunes, and pretty soon, before we realized, we had a complete album. I think what happened was that, as we got into the music, the ‘Porgy and Bess’-ness of it began to show itself and take over the project.”

Gershwin has been a perennial favorite among jazz musicians, in part because he was so closely connected to jazz, and used so many jazz elements in his works. But, equally important, because his music--and, in particular, his songs--provide the kind of lively rhythms and appealing harmonies capable of stimulating a jazz artist’s improvisatory imagination.

“These are tunes,” said Henderson, “that I can’t remember not ever knowing. I played some of them before I even knew what the proper title was, long before I knew there was any connection with ‘Porgy and Bess.’ ”

The choice of “Porgy and Bess” came with some baggage. Versions of the work have been recorded by Ray Charles and Cleo Laine, by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, by Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne, by Sammy Davis Jr. and Carmen McRae, and by Miles Davis and Gil Evans.

Did the existence of renderings by such an array of jazz stars have any impact upon Henderson?

“Not really, “ he said, “although Miles and Gil’s version, and Satch and Ella’s might have drifted through my brain. But the truth is, I had so much to do, trying to deal with whatever our interpretation would be, that I felt pretty free of any special influence coming in.”

Perhaps more than any of the other versions, Henderson’s take on “Porgy and Bess” sticks close to jazz. The front-row instruments--tenor saxophone, trombone, vibes and guitar--provide a piquant timbre quite different from any of the previous jazz versions of the work. And Henderson’s charts allow plenty of room for the soloists to stretch out.

“It’s taken a while for the music to take shape,” said Henderson, “but it’s beginning to get there, and it’s really interesting to hear how it gradually is finding out what it wants to be.”

The process has been slowed somewhat by what Henderson views as the biggest problem he’s had with the project--shifting personnel. The ensemble he brings to the Jazz Bakery varies from those who played on the album.

“It’s difficult enough when you have a regular band,” Henderson noted, “but when you have a group that’s continually changing, it can be very hard. Doing the gigs has been a piece of cake, but it’s taken a lot of rehearsals to keep it together, because we’ve had to use so many different players.”

But the vocals on the “Porgy and Bess” album will not be heard at the Jazz Bakery.

“We took that possibility into account when we did the album,” says Henderson, “but we can do, and we have done, the vocal tunes as instrumentals. Which is OK, too. It’s nice to have the vocals, but from the beginning this was intended to be primarily an instrumental project.” Henderson’s primary goal, however, is to use the “Porgy and Bess” music as the centerpiece in a program of music that will take Henderson full circle, back to his original Gershwin intentions. Toward that end, he is titling the gig “Jazz Variations of Gershwin.”

“What we’re going to do,” he said, “is--instead of doing the charts so much--just play the tunes. For the moment, I’m staying fairly close to the way we’ve done the tunes on the CD, and we have to do that, because that’s what people expect. And I don’t want to throw anybody off.”

“But as we perform the stuff,” continued Henderson, “I’d like to gradually move it out of the ‘Porgy and Bess’ framework that we have now, and move into a broader approach that includes other Gershwin material. Because that’s what I really wanted to do in the first place, make this a real tribute to Gershwin, to all of his music, and to the important role he’s played in the history of jazz.”

BE THERE

The Joe Henderson Sextet with “Jazz Variations on Gershwin” at the Jazz Bakery through Sunday. 3233 Helms Ave. (310) 271-9039. $20 admission tonight and Friday, 8:30 and 10 p.m. $22 admission Saturday, 8:30 and 10 p.m. $18 admission Sunday, 6 and 8 p.m.