Buddy Arnold born 30 April 1926

Arnold Buddy Grishaver (April 30, 1926 – November 9, 2003), known professionally as Buddy Arnold, was an American jazz saxophonist. 

Bronx born Buddy Arnold took up the sax at age nine and turned pro while still in his teens. At 16 years old, Arnold performed at the Apollo Theater with the Georgie Auld Orchestra with singer Billy Eckstine. At age 18 he joined the Army and led an Army Dance Band from 1944 to 1946. Following this he played with Joe Marsala, Will Osborne (singer), Herbie Fields, Buddy Rich. His first recordings were in 1949 with Gene Williams and the Junior Thornhill Band with Claude Thornhill before leaving to study music and economics at Columbia University. In 1951 he began playing again, touring with Buddy DeFranco, then worked with Jerry Wald, Tex Beneke, Elliot Lawrence, Stan Kenton, and Neal Hefti. 

                         Here’s “Oedipus” from above album. 

                             

Finally, late in 1955 and together with fellow trumpeter Phil Sunkel, he put together his own quintet, emerging as a prominent soloist. His playing was directly inspired by Lester Young, whose style was so pervasive at the time that it became an almost universal language for many modern tenors. "Wailing" was Arnold’s only album as a leader, fronting a septet of fine musicians, who all subscribed to the premise that emotion and swing are the key and character of jazz. It was released by Paramount in 1956. He did further work for the label with Phil Sunkel. 

Despite this promising album debut, his career was cut short soon after its release. Drug use was partially to blame, as it led to him going to prison for robbery for two years. In 1960 he tried to resume his career, playing and recording with Stan Kenton, who wanted to help him on his recovery. He also played with Tommy Dorsey’s ghost band. But he went back to old habits in the 1970s. In 1977 he was arrested in Pasadena, California, for falsifying prescriptions, and in 1981 a new prison sentence linked to his addictions sent him to San Quentin. 

In the 1980s, he dropped out of music due to another prison sentence stemming from his addictions. Following his release from prison four months later due to a computer error, Arnold remained clean. A decade later he and his wife Carole Fields co-founded the Musician’s Assistance Program, which offered help to musicians with drug problems. In the early '90s he showed up on an album by swing revival band Love Jones, providing a touch of authenticity that is quite rare on these sorts of recordings. 

Buddy and Carole Fields

After many ups and downs, Arnold passed away of complications from open heart surgery at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on November 9, 2003. He was 77. 

 (Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Liner notes)

Toots Thielemans born 29 April 1922

Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. 

Thielemans was born in Brussels. His parents owned a café. He began playing music at an early age, using a homemade accordion at age three. During the German occupation of Belgium beginning in 1940, he became attracted to jazz, but was then playing on full-size accordion or a harmonica, which he taught himself to play in his teens. After being introduced to the music of Belgian-born jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt, he became inspired to teach himself guitar, which he did by listening to Reinhardt's recordings. At the time he was a college student majoring in math. By the war's end in 1945, he considered himself a full-time musician. 

In 1949 he joined a jam session in Paris with Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach and others. He first heard the faster bebop style of jazz from records by Parker and Dizzy Gillespie after they had reached Belgium after the war. They became his musical "prophets." As his small collection of jazz records grew, the music of Benny Goodman and Lester Young began to impress him the most. 

During a visit to the U.S. in 1948, an agent of Benny Goodman heard him play at a small New York music club. Not long after he returned to his home in Belgium, he received a letter inviting him to join Goodman's band while they toured in Europe. He readily accepted the invitation and joined their tours in 1949 and 1950. During the tour, Goodman was "shocked" when he learned that these tours were the first time Thielemans had earned money from his playing. Although Thielemans was hired on as a guitarist, when Goodman's group debuted at the London Palladium, he played the harmonica due to union restrictions. 

In 1951 he toured with singer songwriter and compatriot Bobbejaan Schoepen, performing strictly as a guitarist. He moved to the United States in 1952 where he was a member of Charlie Parker's All-Stars and worked with Miles Davis and Dinah Washington. In 1955, he recorded his first album as a band leader, "The Sound." During the 1950s, Thielemans had dominated the "miscellaneous instrument" category in Down Beat magazine's poll. In 1957 he became a U.S. citizen. From 1953 to 1959 he played guitar and harmonica with the George Shearing Quintet. With Shearing, he added whistling to his repertoire. He toured internationally with his small group along with intermittently recording in the studio. He recorded with singers and musicians including Ella Fitzgerald, Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Stephane Grappelli, J.J. Johnson, Oscar Peterson, Shirley Horn, Joe Pass, and jazz pianist Bill Evans, among others. 

                    

He worked both as a bandleader and as a sideman, including many projects with composer/arranger Quincy Jones. In the 1960s he performed on television with Peggy Lee. In 1969 he recorded "Honeysuckle Rose Aquarela Do Brasil" with singer Elis Regina and performed with her on Swedish television special. During his career he performed on many film soundtracks, such as The Pawnbroker (1964) and Midnight Cowboy among many others.. His theme to the popular Sesame Street television show was heard for 40 years. 

His music was heard on the Belgian television series Witse, and in the Netherlands, for the Baantjer program. He composed the music for the 1974 Swedish film Dunderklumpent. His whistling and harmonica playing was heard on Old Spice commercials in the 1960s. He played harmonica on "Night Game" on Paul Simon's 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years. During the early 1980s Thielemans was a guest a number of times on Late Night with David Letterman. He has performed with the bassist Jaco Pastorius, and in 1983 he contributed to Billy Joel's album An Innocent Man, in the song, "Leave A Tender Moment Alone." A year later, he appeared on the Julian Lennon song "Too Late for Goodbyes" from the album Valotte. 

In 1984, he recorded with Billy Eckstine on the singer's final album (I Am a Singer), featuring ballads and standards arranged and conducted by Angelo DiPippo. In the 1990s, Thielemans embarked on theme projects that included world music. In 1998 he released a French-flavoured album titled Chez Toots featuring guest singer Johnny Mathis. In 2009, he was awarded the highest U.S. honour that can be accorded to a jazz musician, the distinction of "Jazz Master," by The National Endowment for the Arts. 

Because of health issues that led to show cancellations, Thielemans announced his retirement on 12 March 2014, cancelling all scheduled concerts. He was also hospitalized for a broken arm. His manager stated that Thielemans "wants to enjoy the rest he deserves." However, he did make one more stage appearance, unannounced, in August 2014, at the Jazz Middelheim Festival in Antwerp. 

Thielemans died at Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium, 22 August 2016, at the age of 94. The cause was complications from a fall, his agent told Belgian media. He was buried in La Hulpe, just outside Brussels.

(Edited from Wikipedia) 

The Fantastic Johnny C born 28 April 1943

Johnny Corley (born April 28, 1943), better known as The Fantastic Johnny C, is an American soul singer who had four US Hot 100 hits, including the 1967 top ten hit "Boogaloo Down Broadway". 

Born in Greenwood, South Carolina, United States, he studied at Brewer High School but left to join the armed services before graduating. He moved to Norristown, Pennsylvania, a small city 18 miles from Philadelphia after his military duties ended and began work as a heavy equipment operator. He joined a local gospel vocal group associated with the Macedonia Baptist Church, and while rehearsing was heard by a fellow churchgoer and nearby neighbour, the record producer and songwriter Jesse James. James persuaded Corley to start singing secular music and became his manager. 

Corley began performing in Philadelphia, on bills with Sam Cooke and Joe Simon among others, and James wrote the song "Boogaloo Down Broadway" for him. Arranged by Leon Mitchell and recorded in Philadelphia, the song used some of the musicians who would later form the band MFSB, including drummer Earl Young. His stage name came about when some acquaintances of both James and Corley stated almost in unison, "That's fantastic -- what are you going to call him?" after hearing "Boogaloo Down Broadway." Hearing their response, James first came up with the Fantastic Johnny Corley before shortening it to the Fantastic Johnny C. 

                              

The record rose to number 5 on the Billboard R&B chart and number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 23, 1967. Johnny C followed up the record's success with three further US chart hits in 1968 – "Got What You Need" (number 32 R&B, number 56 pop); "Hitch It to the Horse" (number 25 R&B, number 34 pop), which drew on the success of James' other writing and production success, "The Horse" by Cliff Nobles; and "(She's) Some Kind of Wonderful" (number 87 pop), a song previously recorded by Soul Brothers Six and later by Grand Funk Railroad. 

His first gig was at the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia, sharing a bill with Sam & Dave, the Vibrations, and Joe Simon. Phil La of Soul released his only album, Boogaloo Down Broadway, a mini-masterpiece of gritty soul containing the deep soul cuts "Warm and Tender Love," "Shout Bamalama," and many dance tunes: "Cool Broadway," "Barefootin'," "The Bounce," and "Land of a Thousand Dances. 

Corley continued to sing in church while recording secular music..He remained on the Phil-L.A. of Soul label until 1970 before joining Kama Sutra Records. Still working with Jesse James and the same studio musicians, he released two further singles, credited simply as Johnny C, but failed to find further commercial success. He then left the music business, only undertaking occasional performances in later years. 

When he scored his first hit, he stated that his goal was to be the "number one soul brother," and, while he failed to achieve that lofty title, he did land among the stars for brief period courtesy of his explosive recordings. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

Hop Wilson born 27 April 1921

Harding "Hop" Wilson (April 27, 1921* – August 27, 1975) was an American Texas blues steel guitar player. 

He was  Harding Wilson was born on a farm in Houston County between Grapeland and Crockett and was named after the President of the United States. His nickname was derived from his ability to play the harmonica, or "harp," which he pronounced "hop." Acquiring his first steel guitar sometime between the age of 12 and 18, Wilson performed at various Houston clubs. Though he also played fine down-home blues on conventional electric guitar and was a powerful singer as well. 

He played in local venues around Crockett when he was a teenager and worked at other odd jobs throughout the 1930s and early 1940s. He was drafted in 1942 and served with the United States Army and became a private first class. When he was discharged in 1946 he decided to pursue a serious career as a blues musician. After returning to Crockett, he played local gigs while working in non-music-related jobs until the early 1950s. In the mid-1950s he joined drummer "King" Ivory Lee Semien, and for the next several years they worked clubs in East Texas and Louisiana. 

Wilson and Semien recorded a number of sides for Goldband Records in Lake Charles, Louisiana during 1957. Their wild, rough-edged style on ‘Chicken Stuff’ and ‘Rockin’ in the Coconut Top’ got them a few regional hits in the late 50s, but they never troubled the national charts. His low sounding playing gave several of his tracks, even "Merry Christmas Darling", a morose, disillusioned feel. Strictly a local phenomenon, Wilson recorded fitfully and hated touring. 

                    

He was described as having "absorbed not only the black Texas blues as sung and played by the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson but also the heavily amplified, often wildly distorted, steel guitar sounds of the region's white Western Swing bands." Hop Wilson didn't lead his own sessions until 1960, when he signed with the Ivory record label. Wilson only recorded for the label for two years -- his final sessions were in 1961. After 1961, Wilson concentrated on playing local Houston clubs and bars. 

Although he was virtually unknown outside of Houston, he was a local sensation who influenced numerous modern guitarists. Wilson is best known for his work on the eight-string Hawaiian steel guitar, which he helped popularize throughout the South during the 1940s and 1950s. He played the instrument in the country-and-western style on a stand or in his lap. His unique slide stylings had a significant influence on a variety of guitar players, including L. C. "Good Rockin" Robinson, Sonny Rhodes, Jimmie Vaughan, and Johnny Winter. 

He continued to perform in Houston until August 12, 1975 when he was admitted to the V.A. hospital in a confused state and was diagnosed with brain damage due to lack of oxygen- often indicative of a stroke. He died 15 days later from respiratory arrest on August 27, 1975. 

The maestro of tender fury is buried at Mount Zion Cemetery in Grapeland, less than two miles from where he was born. His instrument may have been a novelty, but It didn’t matter what he played. It’s how he played it. No one can deny that Hop Wilson was a true original! While Wilson's recording career has been characterized as "slight", he did have an influence on a variety of musicians, including Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones, who stated in 1994 "There's another guitar player called Hop Wilson. I got songs that I wrote like 'Black Limousine' from him, those kinds of licks". 

Peter Green, founder of Fleetwood Mac, interviewed in 2007 discussing his favourite blues artists, stated "then there's Hop Wilson, a slide guitar player from Houston who used a twin-neck lap steel. He recorded a couple of singles calling himself  Pap Hop, and wrote the song Black Cat Bone. I love his album Texas Steel Guitar Flash."

(Edited from Wikipedia, Michael Corcoran & the Texas State Historical Association) (* Some sources list his birth year as 1927.)

Teddy Edwards born 26 April 1924

Theodore Marcus Edwards (April 26, 1924 – April 20, 2003) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.

Theodore Marcus "Teddy" Edwards was born in Jackson, Mississippi to a musical family. His grandfather, Henry C. Reed, played the bass and his father, Bruce Edwards, trombone, violin and reed instruments.  Under these circumstances it was quite obvious that Teddy started to play very young, at first alto saxophone and later clarinet. 

His uncle sent for him to come to Detroit to live because he felt opportunities were better. Due to illness in the family, he went back to Jackson and ventured to Alexandria, Louisiana. He was persuaded by Ernie Fields to join his band after going to Tampa, Florida. Edwards had planned to go to New York City, but Fields convinced him he could get there by way of Washington, D.C., if he worked with his band. Edwards ended up at the "Club Alabam" on Central Avenue in Los Angeles, which later became his city of residence. 

After leaving the West Coast with Ernie’s Orchestra he came back in February, 1945 to join Roy Milton’s Rhythm and Blues Band.  Howard McGhee, during that time, was working with the Coleman Hawkins Quintet at Billy Berg’s Cocktail Lounge and stayed in Los Angeles after finishing that engagement to form his own group.  Unable to find a tenor player with the harmonic knowledge and the approach that he needed, he suggested Teddy switch to the tenor.  Teddy eagerly agreed because Howard’s music was more in the idiom that he was interested in playing. So he joined with Howard with Roy Milton’s good blessings. 

Edwards played with many jazz musicians, including his personal friend Charlie Parker, Roy Milton, Wynonie Harris, Vince Guaraldi, Joe Castro and Ernie Andrews. A 1947 recording with Dexter Gordon, The Duel, was an early challenge to another saxophonist an approach he maintained whenever possible, including a recording with Houston Person. One such duel took place in the 1980s at London's 100 Club with British tenor Dick Morrissey. 

Around July, 1954 Teddy had a phone call from Max Roach inviting him to come to Los Angeles to finish out his Clifford Brown’s engagement at the “Californian Club” in Los Angeles, because Sonny Stitt had to leave to fulfill previous commitments. That’s where he recorded his most famous composition “Sunset Eyes” which he wrote in 1948.  This group’s first recording date also consisted of Carl Perkins piano and George Bledsoe on bass. 

From 1948 until he recorded in 1958 with Leroy Vinnegar on his first album “Leroy Walks”, the Max Roach –Clifford Brown recording was the only jazz record he made in 1954.  During this period the so-called West Coast jazz thing came into existence and Teddy was completely excluded, although he felt some of these were his best playing years. In 1959 he played in Earl Bostic’s band and made in 1960 a thirty minute television (biographical film for Steve Allen’s “Jazz Scene U.S.A” (composed and arranged the music for this film shown in 42 countries). 

                      

During the early sixties the California recording scene began to change and he recorded his first album with the Les McCann trio “It’s About Time,” and also his “Sunset Eyes” album.  Shortly thereafter he signed a contract with Contemporary Records. Gerald Wilson formed another orchestra to record for Pacific Jazz. Teddy and Harold Land were the featured soloists with the band along with trumpeter Carmel Jones and others.  The band played the 1963 Monterey Festival. 

In 1964 he was hired by Benny Goodman to play at Disneyland with his band.  After going East, Benny Goodman sent for Teddy Edwards to join his sextet, which included cornet player Bobby Hackett, pianist Vince Guaraldi and singer Marilyn Monroe. Teddy stayed in New York to play and write for the big band that Benny Goodman formed to play the 1964 World’s Fair. After a while he went back to Los Angeles and worked several jobs including the Red Skelton TV show with the Dave Rose orchestra. 

In 1965, he was in Monterey again with Dizzy Gillespie – Gil Fuller big band and Earl “Father” Hines group. Then an association with Ernie Garside, his British tour manager, led to regular tours, which extended across Europe. His recordings burgeoned - including collaborations with Tom Waits - as did arranging assignments and concert engagements with his innovative brass-string ensemble. 

Edwards was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, but he kept the illness quiet, determined to fight back and continue with his career. At first, when it seemed he would recover, he came back to even greater popularity. By April of 2001, the cancer began to overtake him and seriously affect his playing. A Teddy Edwards Celebration in Los Angeles was supposed to feature Edwards and his Brass String Ensemble. 

Sadly, Edwards was unable to play because chemotherapy treatments caused muscle spasms in his arms. His final nursing costs were funded by Herb Alpert, an old friend.  He died in Los Angeles on April 20, 2003 at the age of 78. 

(Edited from Wikipedia. Obit by Peter & Greetje Juijts & The Guardian)

 

Jeff Healey born 25 April 1966

Norman Jeffrey Healey (March 25, 1966 – March 2, 2008) was a Canadian blues, rock and jazz singer, guitarist, and songwriter who attained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Healey was raised in the city's west end. He was adopted as an infant; his adoptive father was a firefighter. When he was almost one year old, Healey lost his sight due to retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the eyes. His eyes had to be surgically removed, and he was given ocular prostheses. 

Healey began playing guitar when he was three, developing his unique style of playing the instrument flat on his lap. At nine years old, his musical talents were showcased in an interview on the TV Ontario children's programme Cucumber. When he was 15, Healey formed the band Blue Direction, a four-piece that primarily played bar-band cover tunes and featured bassist Jeremy Littler, drummer Graydon Chapman, and schoolmate Rob Quail on second guitar. The band played at clubs in Toronto, including the Colonial Tavern. Healey began hosting a jazz and blues show on radio station CIUT-FM, where he was known for playing from his massive collection of vintage 78 rpm gramophone records. 

Shortly thereafter he was introduced to bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen, with whom he formed a trio, the Jeff Healey Band. The band made their first public appearance at the Birds Nest, located upstairs at Chicago's Diner on Queen Street West in Toronto. They received a write-up in Toronto's NOW magazine, and soon were playing almost nightly in local clubs, such as Grossman's Tavern and the famed blues club Albert's Hall (where Jeff Healey was discovered by guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins). 

                             

After being signed to Arista Records in 1988, the band released the album See the Light, which appeared on the RPM Top 100 chart in 1989. It featured the hit single "Angel Eyes" and the song "Hideaway", which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. While the band was recording See the Light, they were also filming (and recording for the soundtrack of) the Patrick Swayze film Road House. Healey had numerous acting scenes in the movie with Swayze, as his band was the house cover band for the bar featured in the movie. 

Healey with Stevie Ray Vaughn

In 1990, the band won the Juno Award for Canadian Entertainer of the Year. The albums Hell to Pay and Feel This, gave Healey 10 charting singles in Canada between 1990 and 1994, including a cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", which featured George Harrison and Jeff Lynne on backing vocals and acoustic guitar. 

By the release of the 2000 album Get Me Some, Healey began to concentrate on jazz. He went on to release three CDs of music of traditional American jazz from the 1920s and 1930s. He had been sitting in with these types of bands around Toronto since the beginning of his music career. Though known primarily as a guitarist, Healey also played trumpet during live performances. His main jazz group for touring and recording was Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards. 

Healey was an avid record collector and amassed a collection of well over 30,000 78 rpm records. Starting in 1990 he hosted a radio program of very early jazz on CIUT at the University of Toronto with Colin Bray. Later he went national on CBC Radio's program entitled My Kind of Jazz, in which he played records from his vast vintage jazz collection. He moved the show two years later to Jazz FM - CJRT; as a part of ongoing celebrations for what would have been Healey's 50th birthday in 2016, the latter program began to air in repeats Wednesdays 9pm on jazz.fm. 

For many years, Healey toured throughout North America and Europe and performed at his club, "Healey's" on Bathurst Street in Toronto. The club moved to a bigger location at 56 Blue Jays Way and was rechristened "Jeff Healey's Roadhouse." Though he had lent his name to the club and often played there, Jeff Healey did not own or manage the bar. At the time of his death, he had been planning to perform a series of shows in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands, with his other band, the Jeff Healey Blues Band (aka the "Healey's House Band") in April 2008. 

Over the years, Healey toured and sat in with many well-known performers, including The Allman Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, BB King, ZZ Top, Steve Lukather, Eric Clapton and many more. In 2006, Healey appeared on Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan's CD/DVD Gillan's Inn. 

On January 11, 2007, Healey underwent surgery to remove metastatic tissue from both lungs. In the previous 18 months, he had two sarcomas removed from his legs. On March 2, 2008, Healey died of sarcoma in his home town of Toronto at the age of 41. He was buried at Park Lawn Cemetery, Mausoleum & Cremation Centre in Etobicoke, Ontario. Healey's death came a month before the release of Mess of Blues, which was his first rock/blues album in eight years.                    (Edited from Wikipedia)  

Joe Henderson born 24 April 1937

Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note, Milestone, and Verve. 

Born in Lima, Ohio, United States, Henderson was one of five sisters and nine brothers. He was encouraged by his parents Dennis and Irene 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 Kenny Dorham, two local piano teachers who went to school with Henderson's brothers and sisters, Richard Patterson and Don Hurless, gave him knowledge of the piano. He was particularly enamoured of his brother's record collection. 

It seems that a hometown drummer, John Jarette, advised Henderson to listen to musicians like Lester Young, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and Charlie Parker. He also liked Flip Phillips, Lee Konitz and the Jazz at the Philharmonic recordings. However, Parker became his greatest inspiration. His first approach to the saxophone was under the tutelage of Herbert Murphy in high school. In this period of time, he wrote several scores for the school band. 

By age 18, Henderson was active on the Detroit jazz scene of the mid-1950s, playing in jam sessions with visiting New York City stars. Henderson studied music at Kentucky State College from 1956, and at Wayne State University, Detroit, where one of his fellow students was the multi-reed player Yusef Lateef.  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. 

Henderson spent two years (1960–62) in the U.S. Army: first in Fort Benning, where he competed in an Army talent show and won first place, then in Fort Belvoir, where he was chosen for a world tour, with a show to entertain soldiers. While in Paris, he met Kenny Drew and Kenny Clarke. Then he was sent to Maryland to conclude his enlistment. In 1962, he was finally discharged and promptly moved to New York.  Then he joined the bands of trumpeter Kenny Dorham and pianist Horace Silver, eventually co-leading a hard bop group called the Jazz Communicators, with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. After that, he worked with Herbie Hancock in the pianist's harmonically adventurous, if commercially obscure, sextet of 1969-70, and with the jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat And Tears. He toyed with jazz-rock fusion, but it was not especially memorably. 

Though Henderson would recall that some of his earliest sax-playing experiences had been for dances around Detroit, and that his first experience of hearing Charlie Parker live was also to witness dancers gyrating to fast bop improvisations on Indiana and Cherokee, the dance versions of jazz music that came from rhythm 'n' blues, rather than swing roots, struck him as more repetitive, and harder to improvise inventively with. Impatient with the narrowing opportunities for uncompromising jazz improvisers during the 1970s, he moved to San Francisco, and became active in music education. He also worked with Freddie Hubbard and others in a group variously known as Echoes Of An Era, and the Griffith Park Band. 

                   

Henderson appeared on 34 Blue Note albums between 1963 and 1990, alongside some of the most creative musicians in American jazz - including McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, Ron Carter and Al Foster. But 1985 was re-emergence year for this often overlooked artist. He played with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams at the televised concert, One Night With Blue Note (the re-launch of the famous Blue Note label), and also recorded the adventurous double-set, The State Of The Tenor, alongside Carter and Foster. 

In 1991, Verve records signed Henderson to the label. In January of that year, Henderson had made a guest appearance on Stephen Scott's Verve album Something to Consider, and worked with Verve producer and vice president Richard Seidel during the session. Seidel served as producer on all five of Henderson's 1990s Verve studio albums. Verve adopted a 'songbook' approach to recording him, coupling it with a considerable marketing and publicity campaign, which more successfully positioned Henderson at the forefront of the contemporary jazz scene. His 1992 'comeback' album Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn was a commercial and critical success and was followed by tribute albums to Miles Davis, Antonio Carlos Jobim, a big band album, and a jazz adaptation of the George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess. 

A chain smoker, on June 30, 2001, after a long battle with emphysema, Henderson died on June 29th 2001in San Francisco, California, as a result of heart failure. He was 64 years of age. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Guardian)