SUNBURST

A former alumni of both Herbie Hancock and Pharoah Sanders, trumpeter Eddie Henderson belongs to that small group of first-rate performers who lit up the early part of the 1970's with their quicksilver fusion of jazz and rock. Essentially in the same stylistic mould as Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Miles Davis and Hancock, Henderson issued his first solo album, 'Realization', in 1973 before subsequently enjoying a steady stream of work over the next three decades as both main-man and side player. However, for the best of Henderson as a solo performer look no further than his stellar 1975 album, which blends funky rhythms, spacey fusion soundscapes and classic jazz-rock ingredients into a refreshingly upbeat whole. Featuring a slightly more commercial sound than Billy Cobham's first two LP's but still firmly rooted in the classic 1970's fusion style, 'Sunburst' treads a slick line between attention-grabbing funk strut and progressive-tinged space-bop, the album gradually moving through from the playful opener 'Explodition', to the beautiful galactic swirls of 'Involuntary Bliss', the dense, star-kissed synth-jazz of the title-track, and eventually, to the blissed-out psych- fusion of album highlight 'Galaxy'. The longer 'Sunburst' plays, the deeper into progressive territory you get. As a result, 'Sunburst' proves a dazzling slices of early-seventies fusion, both for the jazz-funk crowd and all you lovers of Miles Davis and McLaughlin's Mahavishnu crew. Certainly up there with the likes of 'Spectrum', 'Big Fun' and 'Crossings', 'Sunburst' may well be the peak of Henderson's impressive career. The only problem? At the time of writing, 'Sunburst' isn't available on CD. Pity. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2013