One Sunday in !966, I was driving around Detroit with my Mom and playing with the radio in our car. The dial landed on 1440AM just as Joe Henderson’s sax solo from ‘Mode for Joe’ was kicking off….this was my first real exposure to jazz and it totally blew my mind! For a theoretical standpoint, I had no idea what those musicians were doing…nonetheless the music spoke to me on a deep, conversational level. Joe begins his solo with anguished cries that allow you to project your own personal frustrations on them (that particular day, my sources of angst were most likely a dread of junior-high-school biology class as well as a lack of success with girls). After 20 or so bars, Joe Chambers kicks in with a profoundly swinging ride cymbal and the saxophone just grooves on out. I could relate to that too: if adversity was not gonna break Joe’s stride it wasn’t gonna break mine either. When the song ended, I felt like the coolest, most empowered 15-year old in Detroit – isn’t that something? Great music somehow helps you make sense out of your life, figure out who you are and where you want to be.