Music and Production Consultant

Wayne Henderson is a soul-jazz/hard bop trombonist and record producer. In 1961, he co-founded the legendary group The Jazz Crusaders , one of the pioneers of fusion, using elements of jazz, funk, soul, R&B, rock, latin, and gospel in their music, with many smash hit-recordings to their name. In the '70s, The Crusaders were joined by a guitarist Larry Carlton who added to the sound of the group.

Since the start of his career as musician in 1961, and especially as a producer in 1975, Wayne Henderson has worked with notable acts such as Patti Austin, Bill Withers, Ronnie Laws, Steely Dan, Phillip Ingram, Nathan East, Marvin Gaye, B.B. King, The Jackson Five, Hiroshima, Hugh Masekela, Joni Mitchell, Wilton Felder, George Benson, Diana Ross, Poncho Sanchez, Joe Cocker, Michael Jackson, Roy Ayers, Sergio Mendez and Tina Turner , to mention a few.

From the 80s, and in more recent past, Crusaders were one of the most sampled jazz-fusion groups by rap and hip-hop artists. Always with an open mind and ear to new sounds, Henderson says about rap that �the spoken word can sometimes, because of its serious nature, be more effective than words that are sung.

Henderson, who presently resides in Los Angeles , has always focused on a new generation of musicians and singers: �I feel that the music styles require a stretching of the boundaries of traditional sounds, just as it was for Miles, Coltrane, Parker, Blakey, and Ellington. Their innovations were updated versions of previous musical forms but with their own �twists' and flavor. I believe in new talents who will continue to establish trends and set new tones for music.