Watch: Joe Henderson Hotplate Festival YouTube Playlist

Can't get enough of Joe? Neither can we! Check out this YouTube playlist of some of Joe Henderson's greatest live moments documented on film—from playing with the Horace Silver Quintet, to touring worldwide with his own group, to a special version of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" at the White House with Herbie Hancock.

The Joe Henderson Hotplate Festival wraps up this evening with saxophonist Michael Zilber's reinterpretation of Joe Henderson's GRAMMY-winning 1992 Verve album Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn.

We might just have to make this Festival an annual thing...

Tribute: Joe Henderson Hotplate Festival

We formally dedicate the Joe Henderson Lab at SFJAZZ Center, named after the iconic saxophonist, by paying tribute to four of his greatest recorded moments. Check out the Joe Henderson Hotplate Festival this week!

Joe Henderson Hotplate Festival

Joe Henderson had a long and memorable history with SFJAZZ, performing over a dozen times in various settings: a sacred concert duet with tabla master Zakir Hussain (now a SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director) at Grace Cathedral, a salute to Antônio Carlos Jobim with Herbie Hancock, and the 1993 tribute night “We Love Joe” featuring Henderson's quintet with John Scofield, Charlie Haden and Al Foster, his Big Band, and the Kronos Quartet!

"We Love Joe" Tribute at Davies Symphony Hall, 1993 -- Joe Henderson & John Scofield

The official Dedication Ceremony will take place this Thursday, Aug 14th at 6:30pm in Joe Henderson Lab, and will feature remarks by SFJAZZ co-founder Randall Kline, as well as Joe Henderson's two sons Malcolm Daniel and Kim Vasquez. 

Buy tickets to the Joe Henderson Hotplate Festival.

Watch the SFJAZZ Collective discuss their favorite Joe Henderson recordings.

Tribute: Horace Silver (1928-2014)

Horace Silver: New Jersey, December 2, 1956

We mourn the loss of Horace Silver—composer, pianist, and father of hard bop—who passed at 85 today. Silver was a true giant of jazz.

Read NPR's tribute.

For an artist who released dozens of records as a bandleader (notably on Blue Note Records, 1955-1979), co-founded and led the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey, while also recording with Miles Davis, Milt Jackson, Hank Mobley and many others, it's impossible to choose any one recording to embody his legacy. The playlist below is a start:

In 2010, the SFJAZZ Collective paid tribute to Horace Silver on their 7th Annual Concert Tour, performing new arrangements of classics like "Cape Verdean Blues," "Señor Blues," "Sister Sadie," "Peace" and a standard of standards, "Song For My Father." The tour was documented by Mezzo:

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate upon it in order to get the most of it. You must absorb most of it. The harmonies within the music can relax, soothe, relax, and uplift the mind when you concentrate upon and absorb it. Jazz music stimulates the minds and uplifts the souls of those who play it as well as of those who listen to immerse themselves in it. As the mind is stimulated and the soul uplifted, this is eventually reflected in the body.

-- Horace Silver

Tribute concert this August to Horace Silver's Song For My Father with Matt Clark.