Ernie Henry born September 3, 1926

Ernie Henry (September 3, 1926 – December 29, 1957) was an American jazz alto saxophonist. Not well known, but even in his brief lifetime, he played with Monk, Mingus, and Gillespie – and he was on the verge of bridging the gap from bebop to free jazz. However, his life ended far too soon, but certainly deserves to be remembered. 

Ernie Henry with Tadd Dameron

Ernie Albert Henry was born and grew up in Brooklyn and learned piano at 8, violin at 10, and turned to the alto sax while in high school. He began playing in the style of Johnny Hodges, who of course was the alto man at the time. Ernie's first memory of hearing Charlie Parker dates back to 1939, when he happened to catch a radio broadcast of the Jay McShann band from the Savoy Ballroom and, he recalls, was immediately impressed. 

His professional career began after his army service, when in 1947 Tadd Dameron began to show an interest in his playing and made him known to musicians who worked in the clubs on 52nd street; as a result he performed with Dameron, Fats Navarro, Charlie Ventura, Max Roach, Georgie Auld and Kenny Dorham. After working with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band (1948-49) he joined Illinois Jacquet (1950). 

                     Here's "Gone With The Wind" from above LP

                                   

As an alto saxophonist, Ernie Henry naturally lived in the shadow of the great Charlie Parker at that time. But the youngster had a knack for giving his solos a different twist and avoiding typical Parker phrases as much as possible. In pieces like “The Chase” and “The Squirrel” (both from 1947 with Dameron/Navarro), his playing tended towards a rough cry and adventurous runs through the octaves.

Charlie Parker

In the early 1950s, Ernie Henry disappeared from the scene for an extended period. It was an open secret that he was battling drug addiction. Heroin use was a sad trend among jazz musicians at the time, and many talents died young from overdoses, including Freddie Webster (1947), Sonny Berman (1947), Dick Twardzik (1955), Carl Perkins (1958), Shadow Wilson (1959), and Sonny Clark (1963). Even Charlie Parker, the leading alto saxophonist of bebop, lost his life in 1955 – heroin and alcohol played a significant role in his demise. 

When Ernie Henry returned to the scene a year after Parker’s death, his style had visibly matured. He no longer compulsively avoided sounding like his great predecessor but integrated the “Parker tone” into his own phrasing. His sound was aggressive, almost tenor-like. He played virtuoso bop but led his lines across large intervals into remote territories. It’s no wonder that the later avant-gardist Eric Dolphy was a big fan of his. In 1956 he recorded with Matthew Gee and just a few days before his 30th birthday, Ernie Henry made his debut album: “Presenting Ernie Henry” (Riverside, 1956). In September 1957, Henry made more recordings as a bandleader, but they were only released after his death.            

His most famous studio sessions took place in October 1956 with Thelonious Monk. The pianist had booked a distinctive frontline of two saxophones for the album “Brilliant Corners” (Riverside, 1956) (the tenor saxophonist was Sonny Rollins), and he had composed three exciting pieces for it. The second studio date (lasting a full four hours) was entirely dedicated to the title track. “Brilliant Corners” is an highly unusual composition. The band made 25 attempts, but in the end, the producer had to piece the piece together from multiple takes. Ernie Henry was on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the studio. Because Monk’s intricate piano accompaniment irritated him, the bandleader even stopped playing during Henry’s solo (Monk often did the same when playing with Miles Davis). In response, Ernie Henry embarked on adventurous harmonic journeys in his solo.

Kenny Dorham, the trumpeter on Henry’s debut album, returned the favour at the end of 1957 by recording the album “2 Horns/2 Rhythm” (Riverside, 1957) together with the saxophonist. Once again, Henry took the opportunity to harmonically loosen his controlled, jagged style. His fantastic playing here points directly toward the freer jazz of the 1960s. These later recordings show that he was beginning to develop a strongly individual style that seemed primed to send him to future stardom. Unfortunately, four weeks after these recordings, on December 29, 1957, Ernie Henry mysteriously died in his sleep at the age of 31. A heroin overdose has been alleged, but he also suffered from very high blood pressure.

(Edited from Fidelity Magazine, New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, and Liner Notes) (NB. There are very few photos of Ernie on the web and many that say that it's him but it isn't, so beware)