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Wednesday, 20 July 2022

R.I.P. Michael Henderson (7 Jul 1951 - 19 Jul 2022)


Bassist, singer/songwriter, producer and arranger Michael Henderson has died. He was admitted to hospital two weeks ago shortly after his 71st birthday but never recovered. The news was announced on his facebook page 
He was born in Yazoo City, MS, and moved to Detroit in the 60s to work as a session musician playing bass as a 13 year old with The Fantastic Four, Detroit Emeralds, Billy Preston and some Motown acts in the mid sixties. He got his big break after he was spotted by Stevie Wonder who invited him to tour with him. This in turn led to him featuring on ten of Miles Davis' 70s fusion albums. After working with Davis for seven years he started his solo career debuting with "Solid" which contained "Valentine Love" which he later recorded with Jean Carn.

He had a relatively short solo recording career releasing eight albums (seven on Buddah and his final one on EMI-America) between 1976-86 before he retired. He also featured on several Norman Connors albums and did some duets with Phyllis Hyman.

The list of artists he recorded and/or toured with include Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, Norman Connors, The Dramatics, Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Womack, Mtume and many others. 

He achieved seventeen R&B chart entries (all included in playlist below) with only "Take Me I'm Yours" reaching the Hot 100 at #88 and two others bubbled under at 101 and 103.

Below are two tribute playlists, the first consists of all his A sides which entered US R&B chart and the second cherry picked from his albums which are mainly album only tracks but one or two (e.g."Riding" and "Come To Me") may have appeared as B sides.

Album Discography

with Miles Davis
1970 - The Cellar Door Sessions
1971 - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
1971 - Live-Evil
1972 - On the Corner
1973 - In Concert: Live at Philharmonic Hall
1974 - Big Fun
1974 - Get Up with It
1976 - Agharta
1975 - Pangaea
1977 - Dark Magus

with Norman Connors
1975 - Norman Connors - Saturday Night Special
1976 - Norman Connors - You Are My Starship

Solo
1976 - Solid
1977 - Goin' Places
1979 - Do It All
1980 - Wide Receiver
1981 - Slingshot
1983 - Fickle
1986 - Bedtime Stories
The Singles (A Sides)

Album Tracks / B Sides

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3 comments:

USMAN47 said...

Another great figure disappearing. For all his fans there is an excellent compilation published by Sony "Take Me I'm Yours - The Buddah Years Anthology" in 2 CDs.

Yves

SoulStrutter said...

Thanks for your comments Yves. The compilation (in UK at least) is by Soul Music run by ex Blues & Soul columnist David Nathan from 2018 with the artwork being done by blog partner Roger Williams.
https://www.discogs.com/release/11821218-Michael-Henderson-Take-Me-Im-Yours-The-Buddah-Years-Anthology

USMAN47 said...

Thanks for all the details.

Yves