Alex Henderson

Michael Henderson
Solid

1976 was an important year for singer, bassist, songwriter and producer Michael Henderson. Not only did the Mississippi native enjoy considerable exposure when Philadelphia drummer Norman Connors featured him on his 1976 single “You Are My Starship” (a Henderson song that soared to #4 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart and became Connors’ biggest hit ever), but also, it was in 1976 that Buddah Records released Henderson’s first solo album, Solid. However, Henderson (who turned 25 that year) was making a name for himself long before he recorded under his own name, and he did so in both jazz and R&B.

Henderson (who was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi on July 7, 1951 but moved north to Detroit as a pre-adolescent) was still in his teens when Stevie Wonder hired him to play electric bass on an American tour in 1969 and 1970. But Henderson played a very different type of music—instrumental jazz-rock fusion—when trumpeter Miles Davis employed him as a sideman during the early to mid-1970s. That was a very productive period for the innovative trumpeter, who featured Henderson on a long list of albums that included A Tribute to Jack Johnson and Live-Evil in 1970, On the Corner in 1972 and Agharta and Pangaea in 1975. Jazz aficionados who knew Henderson for his association with Davis tended to think of him as an instrumentalist, but in 1975, a different side of Henderson asserted itself when Connors featured him as a singer on the Wonder-influenced single “Valentine Love” (a Henderson original and quiet storm favorite that found him performing a male/female vocal duet with Jean Carn). The song was a major hit, reaching #10 R&B in Billboard—and Henderson’s lucrative relationship with Connors continued in 1976 on Connors’ You Are My Starship album. In addition to writing and singing on the smash title track, Henderson wrote the hit “We Both Need Each Other” (a male/female vocal duet with the late Phyllis Hyman).

Thanks to his vocals and songwriting on “Valentine Love,” “You Are My Starship” and “We Both Need Each Other,” Henderson earned a prominent position in the quiet storm market of the 1970s. And with Solid—which was entirely produced, written and arranged by Henderson—he continued to show his proficiency with romantic soul ballads and slow jams. Henderson’s quiet storm side is alive and well on the haunting “Treat Me Like a Man,” the Marvin Gaye-influenced “Stay with Me This Summer,” the ballad “Be My Girl” and a solo remake of “Valentine Love.” Henderson’s 1975 duet with Carn is a classic, but as the version on Solid demonstrates, Henderson also sounds great singing “Valentine Love” by himself.

In 1976, “Be My Girl” was a hit for both Henderson and fellow Motor City residents the Dramatics—although their version is the better known of the two and soared to #3 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart (compared to #23 R&B for Henderson’s version). Nonetheless, both versions are definitive examples of quiet storm in the 1970s. And while Solid didn’t contain any Top 10 singles, the album itself performed well and made it to #10 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart and #20 on Billboard’s jazz albums chart.

But as much as Solid has to offer from a quiet storm standpoint, it would be a huge mistake to think of Henderson as strictly a romantic singer. Henderson is also a master of gritty funk—a fact that he makes abundantly clear on “Make Me Feel Better” and the Sly Stone-influenced “You Haven’t Made It to the Top” (a minor hit that peaked at #80 R&B in Billboard). Although primarily a soul album, Solid also contains a few jazz-fusion instrumentals: the title track and the George Duke-ish “Time.”

One of the musicians who joins Henderson on Solid is Detroit-born guitarist Bruce Nazarian, who was a busy session player in the Motor City during the 1970s. In a December 2013 interview, Nazarian fondly looked back on working with Henderson 37 years ago.

“At the time, it was obvious that Michael was a very talented guy—and I had fun working on the session for Solid,” Nazarian recalls. “Michael had multiple facets to his musical career. He’s always been talented in a number of different musical veins, and very creative as a songwriter—which I think set Michael apart from the ordinary run-of-the-mill bass player. And he was a talented singer.”

Henderson wore a variety of different hats in the 1970s—fusion bassist/instrumentalist, R&B session bassist, quiet storm singer, funk singer—and Nazarian asserts that those who tried to pigeonhole Henderson back in the day did him a disservice. “Michael was a talented guy on multiple fronts, but he didn’t necessarily reveal all of that right away,” Nazarian stresses. “The Miles Davis thing is what really pushed him out there. But unfortunately, people have a tendency to typecast you—and the first thing they see you doing or the first thing that brings you fame or notoriety is the only thing they think you’re capable of doing. So some people might not have bothered to look past the surface of, ‘Here’s Michael Henderson, a great fusion bassist who plays with Miles Davis.’ They might not have known that that he had other talents.”

Nazarian would have been happy to play on Henderson’s second solo album, Goin’ Places, in 1977, but he was busy playing with Motor City rockers Brownsville Station (best remembered for their 1973 hit “Smokin’ in the Boys Room,” which was covered by heavy metal headbangers Mötley Crüe in 1985). “Michael and I parted ways after Solid, and I hooked up with Brownsville Station and became a member of that band. But hey, Michael got Ray Parker, Jr. to play guitar on Goin’ Places.”

As Nazarian sees it, Henderson’s versatility reflected Detroit’s versatility. “Detroit has always been one of the more interesting musical cities in America,” Nazarian observes. “There has been blues and R&B and soul in Detroit forever, and there has also been pop and rock in Detroit. I think Michael absorbed a lot of different music along the way. Michael’s wildly creative.”

And that creativity is very much in evidence on Solid.

—Alex Henderson, December 2013

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Salon.com, AlterNet, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books.