Our Thing

Our Thing was Henderson’s second title for Blue Note, released six months after Page One. He returned to Englewood Cliffs with Kenny Dorham and Pete La Roca from the Page One line-up, but introduced avant-leaning Andrew Hill in place of McCoy Tyner. This kicked the dynamics in quite a different direction. Gone was McCoy Tyner’s all-embracing rhythmic propulsion, in came the more cerebral and uncompromising internal dialogue of Andrew Hill.

Dorham remains firmly anchored in the bop tradition, but with Hill ‘s angular landscape and Henderson increasingly adventurous use of space, Our Thing moves futher “out” – both Hill and Henderson moving outside the chord changes, more free, and sometimes dissonant. Add to the chemistry, Eddie Khan on bass. Khan is found on many outside-leaning titles – Bill Barron’s Modern Windows Suite,Freddie Hubbard’s Breaking Point, Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond, Eric Dolphy’s Ironman/ Conversations, and on Hill’s next title for Blue Note, Smokestack.