Eddie Henderson (musician)

Eddie Henderson (born October 26, 1940) is an American jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player. He came to prominence in the early 1970s as a member of pianist Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band, going on to lead his own electric/fusion groups through the decade. Henderson earned his medical degree and worked a parallel career as a psychiatrist and musician, turning back to acoustic jazz by the 1990s.

Henderson was born in New York City on October 26, 1940.^[1] At the age of nine he was given an informal lesson by Louis Armstrong, and he continued to study the instrument as a teenager in San Francisco, where he grew up, after his family moved there in 1954, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.^{[1] [2]}

Henderson was influenced by the jazz musician Miles Davis, who was a friend of his parents.^[2] They met in 1957 when Henderson was aged seventeen.^[1]

After completing his medical education, Henderson went back to the Bay area for his medical internship and residency.^[1] It was a week-long gig with Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band that led to a three-year job, lasting from 1970 to 1973.^[1] In addition to the three albums recorded by the group under Hancock's name, Henderson recorded his first two albums, Realization (1972) and Inside Out (1973), with Hancock and the Mwandishi group.^[1]

After leaving Hancock, the trumpeter worked with Pharoah Sanders, Norman Connors, and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers,^[1] returning to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1975 where he joined the Latin-jazz group Azteca and fronted his own bands.^[1] Other jazz performers Henderson has played with include Elvin Jones, Johnny Griffin, Slide Hampton, McCoy Tyner, Benny Golson, Joe Henderson, Max Roach, Jackie McClean, Dexter Gordon, Roy Haynes etc. His discography consists of albums under his name on Capricorn, Blue Note, Capital, Columbia, Steeplechase, Sirocco, Kind of Blue, Furthermore and Smoke Session Records.

A documentary film about his life titled Doctor Eddie Henderson: Uncommon Genius has been aired on several TV stations and screened at several film festivals since February 2024. Henderson was on the faculty at Juilliard school of music 2007 to 2016 and has been on the faculty Oberlin University jazz department since 2014 and promoted to full professor in 2023.

After three years in the Air Force, Henderson enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a B.S. in zoology in 1964.^[1] He then studied medicine at Howard University in Washington D.C., graduating in 1968.^[1] Though he undertook his residency in psychiatry, he practiced general medicine.^[3]

Eddie Henderson is married to Natsuko Henderson. His daughter, Cava Menzies, is a musician and educator. Both his wife and daughter contribute compositions to his albums. ^[4]

Henderson's only UK hit was the single "Prance On" recorded for Capitol which reached No. 44 in the UK Singles Chart in November 1978.^[5]

• Realization (Capricorn, 1973)
• Inside Out (Capricorn, 1974) – recorded in 1973
• Sunburst (Blue Note, 1975)
• Heritage (Blue Note, 1976)
• Comin' Through (Capitol, 1977)
• Mahal (Capitol, 1978)
• Runnin' to Your Love (Capitol, 1979)
• Phantoms (SteepleChase, 1989)
• Think On Me (SteepleChase, 1990) – recorded in 1989
• Colors of Manhattan with Laurent De Wilde (Gazebo, 1990)
• Flight of Mind (SteepleChase, 1991)
• Manhattan in Blue (Videoarts, 1994)
• Inspiration (Milestone, 1995) – recorded in 1994
• Tribute to Lee Morgan with Joe Lovano, Cedar Walton, Grover Washington Jr. (NYC, 1995) – recorded in 1994
• Dark Shadows (Milestone, 1996)
• Dreams of Gershwin (Videoarts, 1998)
• Reemergence (Sharp Nine, 1999)
• Oasis (Sirocco, 2001)
• So What (Eighty-Eight's, 2002)
• Time & Spaces (Sirocco, 2004)
• Echoes (Marge, 2004)
• Precious Moment (Kind of Blue, 2006)
• For All We Know (Furthermore, 2010)
• Collective Portrait (Smoke Sessions, 2015)
• Be Cool (Smoke Sessions, 2018)
• Shuffle and Deal (Smoke Sessions, 2020)
• Witness to History (Smoke Sessions, 2022)^[6]

• Eddie Henderson discography at Discogs
• Eddie Henderson Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2020)

• 1940 births
• Living people
• Jazz musicians from California
• Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area
• 21st-century American male musicians
• 21st-century American trumpeters
• Alessa Records artists
• Blue Note Records artists
• Capitol Records artists
• Milestone Records artists
• SteepleChase Records artists
• American jazz flugelhornists
• American jazz trumpeters
• American male trumpeters
• Jazz-funk trumpeters
• American male jazz musicians
• San Francisco Conservatory of Music alumni
• University of Hartford Hartt School faculty
• The Leaders members
• WJ3 Records artists
• Smoke Sessions Records artists

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