Early life Born in
Lima, Ohio, and older brother James T. to study music. He dedicated his first album to them "for being so understanding and tolerant" during his formative years. Early musical interests included drums, piano, saxophone and composition. According to trumpeter
Kenny Dorham, two local piano teachers who went to school with Henderson's brothers and sisters, Richard Patterson and Don Hurless, gave him a knowledge of the piano. He was particularly enamored of his brother's record collection. A hometown drummer, John Jarette, advised Henderson to listen to musicians like
Lester Young,
Stan Getz,
Dexter Gordon and
Charlie Parker. He also studied music at
Kentucky State College. Shortly prior to his army induction in 1960, Henderson was commissioned by
UNAC to write some arrangements for the suite "Swings and Strings", which was later performed by a ten-member orchestra and the local dance band of Jimmy Wilkins. He was still signed to Milestone Records, which had recently moved to San Francisco after being acquired by Fantasy Records. Henderson wanted to be near his label, and get out of New York City. Henderson lived in San Francisco for the rest of his life, and taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1978 to 1982, according to musicologist Joel Geoffrey Harris. A performance space at the
San Francisco Jazz Center is named for him.
Later career and death Though he occasionally worked with
Echoes of an Era, the Griffith Park Band and
Chick Corea, Henderson remained primarily a leader throughout the 1980s. An accomplished and prolific composer, he began to focus more on reinterpreting standards and his own earlier compositions. Blue Note attempted to position the artist at the forefront of a resurgent jazz scene in 1986 with the release of the two-volume
State of the Tenor recorded at the
Village Vanguard in New York City. == Discography ==