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

1978 - In the Night Time

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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