Jason Hainsworth Quintet

The recorded collaboration of jazz legends Joe Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson is celebrated in April, Henderson’s birthday month, by saxophonist Jason Hainsworth’s quintet featuring vibraphonist Jalen Baker. 

A former student of late New Orleans legend Ellis Marsalis, Houston-born saxophonist and composer Jason Hainsworth emerged from the city’s vaunted High School of the Performing and Visual Arts — the same training ground that produced the likes of Beyoncé, Jason Moran, Robert Glasper, Eric Harland, and Kendrick Scott — and is an in-demand bandleader, sideman, and composer/arranger, and educator whose resume includes work with Renee Rosnes and Johnathan Blake.

For this Hotplate, Hainsworth’s quintet is joined by rising young vibraphone phenomenon Jalen Baker, a fellow Houstonite who is making major waves for his work with Ulysses Owens Jr., Jeremy Pelt, and Mwenso and the Shakes.  

Together, they shine a light on the musical alchemy of Henderson and Hutcherson, who worked together on several seminal Blue Note releases in the 1960s including Hutcherson’s classics The Kicker (1963) and Stick-Up (1966), Henderson’s landmark Mode For Joe (1966), and guitarist Grant Green’s Idle Moments (1963).