Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson was born April 24, 1937 in Lima, Ohio. Joe was one of fourteen children and was encouraged by his parents to study music. Young Joe listened extensively to his older brother’s record collection which included music by Lester Young, Stan Getz, Flip Phillips, Lee Konitz, Dexter Gordon and Charlie Parker. As a youth, Henderson played piano, saxophone, flute and bass, and in his teens was writing arrangements for his high school band.

After graduation, Henderson matriculated at Wayne State University in Michigan where he studied music along with classmates Donald Byrd, Barry Harris and Yusef Lateef. By the age of eighteen, Joe Henderson was becoming a regular on the Detroit jazz scene. After two years in the U.S. Army, he moved to New York City where he was soon playing with Kenny Dorham and Dexter Gordon before becoming a member of Horace Silver’s group.

During the 1960s Joe Henderson played on albums for the Blue Note label, as a leader as well as acting as a sideman on records by Grant Green, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Bobby Hutcherson, McCoy Tyner, Duke Pearson and Herbie Hancock. His first album as a leader, “Page One,” was released in 1963. Musicians admired Henderson for his ability to play in a variety of styles varying from hard bop to Latin, R&B and avant-garde.

After a brief stint with the band Blood, Sweat and Tears, Henderson moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s, where he would live for the rest of his life, teaching for a few years at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Working as a leader for most of the rest of his career, he would release more than thirty albums under his name. Henderson passed away in 2001 at the age 64.

Here is a link to Henderson performing live in Europe:

"RECORDA-ME"