Wayne Henderson

1 festival played

Trombonist, producer and co-founder of the Crusaders, whose horn lines helped bend hard bop toward soul and funk before his death in 2014.

Wayne Henderson was an American trombonist, arranger and producer, best known as a founding member of the Crusaders. The group began in Houston in the 1950s as a hard bop unit, recording as the Jazz Crusaders before shortening the name and moving toward a sound built on soul, funk and R&B rhythms. Henderson's trombone, paired with Wilton Felder's tenor saxophone, gave the band its distinctive two-horn front line and much of its arranging character.

He left the group in the mid-1970s to concentrate on production work, and went on to produce and arrange for a number of soul and jazz-funk artists as well as leading his own sessions. He died in 2014.