Bio

Joe Henderson was born in 1934 in Lima, Ohio. He would gain early exposure to jazz at the local level through some of his dedicated teachers in middle school and high school. By the time Joe Henderson was in High school, he was already active on the Detroit Jazz scene. He would continue his music education at Wayne State University, where some of his classmates included Barry Harris, Donald Byrd, and Yusef Lateef. After serving a short stint in the army, and at the behest of Kenny Dorham, Joe Henderson relocated to New York City. Joe Henderson’s style would wildly revolutionize the tenor sax sound of the 1960's and onward. While there are detectable influences of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, Henderson was able to fuse the two and use his own unique style and sound across a wide spectrum of genres. His playing has gone from straight ahead, to free and modal jazz, into jazz fusion, and finally back to playing musics considered more straight ahead. Some of his most notable albums are, ‘Page One’, ‘Tetragon’, ‘Mode for Joe’ , and ‘Power to the People.’ Some of the many Musicians that Joe Henderson has played with are Kenny Dorham, McCoy Tyner, Pete La Rocca, Al Foster, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, and Ron Carter.