Wayne Henderson

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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 Maurice Henderson was born on September 24, 1939, in Houston, and became a founding figure of the group that started as the Jazz Crusaders before shortening its name to the Crusaders. His trombone, paired with Wilton Felder's tenor saxophone, gave the band its two-horn front line and much of its arranging identity as the group's sound moved from hard bop toward soul, funk and R&B.

Henderson left the Crusaders in 1976 to concentrate on producing and arranging, working with other soul and jazz-funk artists as well as leading his own sessions. He later revived the Jazz Crusaders name in 1995, returning to the band format he had helped establish decades earlier.

In 2007 he took a teaching position at the California College of Music in Pasadena, passing on the arranging and playing knowledge built over his career.

Henderson had lived with diabetes for years and died of heart failure at a hospital in Culver City on April 5, 2014, at the age of 74.

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