Joe Henderson transcribed Lester Young solos so precisely that his professors assumed he had perfect pitch; it was actually obsessive work ethic. This deep dive follows the saxophonist from Lima, Ohio, where he was one of 14 children learning from his brother's record collection, through drums and piano before the sax, the mid-1950s Detroit scene, Wayne State University alongside Yusef Lateef and Donald Byrd, and a 1960 Army draft that turned into a world tour after he won a talent show, plus networking in Paris with Kenny Drew and Kenny Clarke.

The episode covers his 1962 arrival in New York, the night Kenny Dorham took him to Birdland to sit in with Dexter Gordon, his solo on Horace Silver's "Song for My Father," and nearly 30 Blue Note albums in five years spanning hard bop (Page One) and avant-garde (Inner Urge, Andrew Hill's Point of D ...