Of the many young bebop saxophonists to be inspired and infl uenced by Charlie Parker, perhaps one of the most under-appreciated – and best – was Ernie Henry, who mysteriously died in his sleep at the relatively young age of 31. A heroin overdose has been alleged, but he also suffered from very high blood pressure. His peers thought the world of him. They included Fats Navarro, Tadd Dameron, Monk (he played on the classic Brilliant Corners and also gigged with the Monk Quartet) and Dizzy Gillespie, in whose big band Ernie spent much of the last year of his life, mainly for the money as he didn't particularly like big bands. Paradoxically, his last but one recording used an octet featuring his friend tenorist-arranger Benny Golson and a terrific line-up of the best hard boppers around, including a young Lee Morgan and a great rhythm section of Kelly, Chambers and Philly Joe (who's at his very best here). One of the titles from this session (Golson's ‘Stablemates’) got issued at the time on a Philly Joe record by mistake, because Orrin Keepnews absent-mindedly thought Ernie Henry was Cannonball Adderley! There's also a storming quintet (Henry and Morgan) take of ‘All the Things You Are.’

The other nine tracks are from Henry's excellent Seven Standards And A Blues with Chicago bassist Wilbur Ware in for Chambers, plus a previously unissued alternate take of ‘Like Someone in Love.’ Ernie Henry's continued confidence and maturity are really in evidence on his final sessions in November and December of 1957, when he and another close friend, trumpeter Kenny Dorham (whose date it was) used a piano-less (apart that is for the intro of the dirge-like, one-chorus treatment of Gershwin's ‘Soon’) quartet for the legendary 2 Horns 2 Rhythm LP, containing a mix of standards and Dorham originals. This, in contrast to Ernie's debut album, which featured his own boppish compositions, of which the 12-bar ‘Cleo's Chant’ stands out. A potentially important player, Ernie Henry's passionate sound was steeped in the blues. And his rapport with Dorham was something special.