This under-recorded pianist is best known for a pair of sides under his own name, both originally releases from Vanguard in the second half of the '50s. Much of his career was spent playing solo in various venues that engaged pianists and although he did also work as an accompanist to vocalists and a sidemen in combos, many of these collaborations seemed to have not involved recording. A good example is his relationship with the great singer Billie Holiday; although he played behind her with great regularity circa 1933, it was a period where she used one set of musicians at performances and another on recording sessions. Henderson also worked under the name of Jody Bolden, but not on record, emboldening discographers to widen the search. He began playing piano when he was all of nine and a few years later joined the ranks of financially astute musicians by studying book-keeping. Henderson did some piano playing around New York City while learning how to crack the books, attracting positive attention from Fats Waller, who encouraged him to play fulltime. So Henderson drifted down to Washinton, D.C., taking on a more active role in a band fronted by Tommy Myles, a drummer. A bandleader from Boston named Joe Neville also threw some jobs his way. Soon he was working with the legendary Lady Day, also taking over some cherished solo spots in rooms such as the Onyx Club. But again he almost seemed to be moving away from the limelight, opting for the lowkey scene of Utica or Syracuse in the late '30s. During the second World War Henderson became a trumpeter, just about 40 years before an Australian musician of the same name got the same idea. Thus the fact is introduced that pianist Henderson, who also became something of a singer as well as occasional brass blower, has nothing to do with bands such as The Bathers that came out of Australia years after his death. Henderson in fact seemed to have little to do with bands of any sort following the war, sticking to extended solo engagements, once again in mid-sized New York state communities such as Schenectady and Albany. He also spent 1960 and 1961 in Puerto Rico. The Vanguard recordings and a 1957 engagement at the Newport Jazz Festival can be considered something of a tweak in his reputation. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi