The Freedom Sounds Featuring Wayne Henderson

People Get Ready was the first of two albums cut for Atlantic Records by Freedom Sounds, a nine-piece group put together by trombonist Wayne Henderson of the Jazz Crusaders. It was cut around the same time that Henderson appeared as part of Hugh Masekela's band at the Monterey International Pop Festival, and it comes from a similar multi-cultural, musical, multi-lingual sensibility. Henderson and his band -- including Al Abreus on tenor and soprano sax, James Benson on baritone sax and flute, Pancho Bristol on electric bass, Harold Land at the piano, Moses Obligacion on the conga drum, Ricardo Chimelis on the timbales, Max Garduno on percussion, and Paul Humphrey on drums -- range freely across excellent Henderson originals such as "Cucamunga," and cover "Respect," "People Get Ready," "Things Go Better" (yes, the Coca-Cola jingle, which they do wonderful things with), and "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)." The originals, especially "Orbital Velocity" and "Cathy the Cooker," possess vast kinetic energy and the bracing quality of a concert performance, capturing for posterity the reality behind this group's reputation as a live band. The record has aged well and, as if to prove it, WEA International reissued it in 2004 as part of the Atlantic Masters series, in an audiophile-quality CD reissue re-creating the original LP jacket.