Arnett Cobb, Jimmy Heath, Joe Henderson

Tenor Tribute Vol. 2 is the second helping from a concert given on April 30, 1988 at the Jazz Action Center in Nuremberg, where three tenor saxophonists of very different backgrounds shared one stage: Arnett Cobb, Jimmy Heath and Joe Henderson. In his liner notes Mike Hennessey describes it as the first and only time the three played together, in a programme meant as a homage to other great players of their instrument. Soul Note had issued a first selection, Tenor Tribute (121184-2), in 1990. This companion volume followed in 1993, four years after Cobb's death in Houston in March 1989.

The rhythm section was pianist Benny Green, bassist Walter Schmocker and drummer Doug Hammond, and Heath also brought his soprano saxophone and flute. Hennessey notes that the sextet had never played as a unit and had very little time to rehearse, yet found its stride at once and earned an ovation over two sets. The tapes were mixed at Jingle Machine Studio in Milan and mastered at PhonoComp. Five long performances fill about forty minutes. Cotton Tail opens at over ten minutes, followed by 'Round About Midnight and Autumn Leaves, then Sonny Rollins's blues Tenor Madness. The set ends with Flying Home, the Lionel Hampton theme on which Cobb had been the featured soloist in the 1940s, here played by its old protagonist a few months before his death.

This is the Soul Note CD 121194-2, first released in 1993, with the five pieces from the Nuremberg concert not included on the first volume.