Welcome visitors who have gotten here via www.JonHendricks.com! This is a placeholder page until I can get the real official Jon Hendricks web page up. (This is a rather unofficial one that I've had for ages.) The goal is to have it up and running in time for the Four Brothers concert June 15th.

In the meantime, you can check out the message board, which I've just gotten up and running.

Vocalese didn't really take off until Jon Hendricks got his hands on it. Apparently he wrote "Four Brothers" (covered by nearly everyone, it seems) very quickly after hearing "Moody's Mood for Love". He teamed up with Dave Lambert to record it, a collaboration was born, and LHR took off. He wrote scads of great vocalese lyrics for that group and later the Manhattan Transfer, plus a long solo career which is still going strong.

His lyrics are witty, erudite, philosophical, and they swing. What more could you ask for? Well, he can sing pretty well, too, though when he gets going quickly the lyrics he sings can approach incomprehensible. He's got a number of albums, both solo and with various collections of friends. Good things just seem to happen when he is around.

Most recently, he has teamed up with Annie Ross again for a series of concerts in New York and Boston. We have a review of the first 1999 Boston show from Jim Bazin, with pictures. Or a shorter, unillustrated review of an Detroit Orchestra Hall show I saw in 2000.

Links

• CDNow's Jon Hendricks page.
• CDNow's Jon Hendricks and Friends page.
• Nice bio page. (Our discography is more complete, however.)

Recordings

• Evolution of the Blues Song (1960)
  This doesn't contain any vocalese at all. The narration is an extended Hendricks poem, and it features three Hendricks originals:
  • "Amo"
  • "Some Stopped on de Way"
  • "Aw, Gal"
• Cloudburst (1972, Enja)
  Live at the Domicile, Munich, February 1972. Pretty mediocre sound quality.
  • "No More" Hendricks lyrics.
  • "It Was A Dream"
  • "Shiny Stockings" Hendricks vocalese.
  • "Jon's Mumbles" Hendricks original.
  • "Here Is That Rainy Day"
  • "Water Melon Man" Hendricks vocalese? (uncredited)
  • "Everyday I Have the Blues"
  • "Gimme That Wine" Hendricks original.
  • "Cloudburst" Hendricks vocalese. (A better version is on LHR's The Hottest New Group In Jazz.)
  • "Arrastao"
  • "Reza"
• Love (1982, Muse Records)
  Jon Hendricks & Company, featuring Michele Hendricks
  other vocalists: Judith Hendricks, Leslie Dorsey, and Bob Gurland
  All lyrics by Jon Hendricks except "Angel Eyes".
  • "Royal Garden Blues"
  • "Bright Moments"
  • "Willie's Tune"
  • "Good Ol' Lady"
  • "Lil' Darlin'"
  • "I'll Die Happy" Hendricks original
  • "Love (Berkshire Blues)"
  • "Tell Me The Truth" Hendricks original
  • "The Swinging Groove Merchant"
  • "Angel Eyes"
  • "In A Harlem Airshaft"
• Freddie Freeloader (1990)
  (Gee, can you tell that this album has better liner notes than Cloudburst?)
  • "Jumpin' at the Woodside" Hendricks vocalese. Jon's vocalese is on a Lester Young solo, Judith's is Buck Clayton's.
  • "In Summer" Hendricks free translation of Italian song
  • "Freddie Freeloader" Hendricks vocalese.
    • Bobby McFerrin sings Wynton Kelly
    • Al Jarreau sings Miles Davis
    • Jon Hendricks sings John Coltrane
    • George Benson sings Adderley Cannonball
  • "Stardust" Judith sings Jon's vocalese on Armstong's trumpet solo, while Jon replicates Armstong's vocals. I think. Guess I've got to track down the original.
  • "Sugar" Hendricks lyrics
  • "Take the 'A' Train" Judith performs Jon's vocalese on Ray Nance solo. (Got to say I like the Eddie Jefferson version much, much better.)
  • "Fas'-Livin' Blues" Hendricks original.
  • "High As a Mountian" -- Hendricks vocalese on Gil Evans/Miles Davis "Song No 2", performed by a wildly multitracked Manhattan Transfer, with Hendricks singing the (Miles Davis?) solo in the middle. Harmonies are weird, but once I got used to it, this became a favorite.
  • "Trinkle-Tinkle" Hendricks lyric
  • "Swing That Music" Hendricks vocalese, Judith agains sings Armstong's trumpet part. Wish the Transfer would cover this one.
  • "The Finer Things in Life" Hendricks original.
  • "Listen to Monk" Hendricks lyric
  • "Sing, Sing, Sing" awesome Hendricks vocalese. I've heard two different Goodman discs which both have the original of this, though both were several minutes longer than this version.
• Boppin' at the Blue Note (Telarc, 1993)
  • "Get Me to the Church on Time"
  • "Do You Call That a Buddy?"
  • "Good Ol' Lady" Hendricks original
  • "Contemporary Blues" Hendricks original
  • "Everybody's Boppin'" Hendricks original
  • "Almost Like Being In Love"
  • "Roll 'em Pete"
  • "It's Sand, Man" Hendricks lyrics(?)
  • "Since I Fell For You"
  • "Shiny Stockings" Hendricks lyrics
  • "One O'Clock Jump"