Michael Henderson: 07/07/51 - 19/07/22

At a crucial point in the late 1960s forward thinking jazz musicians realised they needed not just the sound of instruments associated with other genres but their players in order to open new stylistic doors. It was thus inevitable that bass guitarist Michael Henderson, who has died at the age of 71, would catch the ear of Miles Davis when the visionary trumpeter decided to bring the funk to his ‘new directions in music’.  

Henderson had a monster groove grown from his roots in R&B and Davis would later give him glowing praise in his autobiography, explaining that the bassist knew what kind of lines would be most effective for the heavy, riff-laden evolution marked by albums such as A Tribute To Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, On The Corner, Big Fun, Get Up With It, Agartha, Pangea and Dark Magus. On these highly influential musical experiments, made in the first seven years of the 1970s, Henderson’s rich, round tone and ability to anchor the low register with unerring chromatic steadiness, choosing exactly the right moment for short but sassy fills and runs, was second to none.

His time as a sideman with Miles would have been more than enough to secure his place in history, but Henderson’s backstory was also quite compelling. Born in Yazoo city, Mississippi, he moved to Detroit as a boy and became a respected session musician for soul combos such as The Dramatics, and Motown legends Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, with whom he was touring when he got the call from Miles. Post-Miles, Henderson started to broaden his skillset and launched a solo career in which he would sing as well as play bass, performing mostly original material. The albums cut between the mid-70s and early 80s, such as Solid, Goin’ Places, In The Nighttime, Do It All and Wide Receiver consolidated his ability to pen dance floor friendly tunes, powered by stomping bass lines and gritty backbeats, though he also took the tempo down on heart to heart ballads.

In fact, Henderson’s beautifully sensitive voice never sounded better than on ‘You Are My Starship’, a dreamscape of a song recorded by Norman Connors that became a anthem during the rare groove years of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Henderson’s recording career tailed off soon after, but he remained a draw on the live circuit in the 2000s, performing occasionally in the UK where there was still a demand mostly for his sterling work on the aforementioned cult tracks.