Luther Henderson

Luther Henderson (March 14, 1919 – July 29, 2003) was an American arranger, composer, orchestrator, and pianist whose career encompassed Broadway, television, and concert music. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he moved with his family to the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem at age four, where he grew up as a neighbor of the Ellington family and a schoolmate of Duke Ellington's son, Mercer. After a brief period studying mathematics at the City College of New York, Henderson enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1942.

During World War II, Henderson was drafted into the Navy, where he worked as an arranger for the Navy band at Naval Station Great Lakes before joining the staff of the U.S. Navy School of Music in Washington, D.C. as orchestrator, a position he held from 1944 to 1946. Following his discharge, he built professional relationships with Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Jule Styne, and Richard Rodgers, among others. His childhood connection to Ellington deepened into a sustained working partnership; Henderson served as classical orchestrator for Ellington's symphonic compositions and became known as Ellington's "classical arm."

Henderson's Broadway career spanned appearances in the early 1930s, including the play Ol' Man Satan and the musical Change Your Luck. He subsequently built an extensive career behind the scenes, working as orchestrator, arranger, and musical director on more than fifty Broadway productions. His first orchestration credit came on Ellington's Beggar's Holiday, on which he served as co-orchestrator alongside Billy Strayhorn. His later Broadway credits as orchestrator or arranger included Flower Drum Song, Funny Girl, No, No Nanette, Purlie, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, That's Entertainment, Ain't Misbehavin', and Jelly's Last Jam. He also contributed music, alongside Buster Davis, to the 1975 Broadway musical Doctor Jazz.

Jelly's Last Jam marked Henderson's Broadway songwriting debut, with lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. The score earned him a 1992 Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score. He received a second Tony nomination in 1997, for Best Orchestrations for Play On!, and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for his work on Jelly's Last Jam.

From the 1950s onward, Henderson worked extensively in television, contributing to The Ed Sullivan Show, The Bell Telephone Hour, and specials for Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Andy Williams, and Victor Borge. He received an Emmy Award nomination for the television presentation of Ain't Misbehavin'. He also served as musical director for actress Polly Bergen and for Victor Borge, and arranged music for singers including Liza Minnelli, Eartha Kitt, Diahann Carroll, Robert Goulet, Leslie Uggams, Lesley Gore, Nancy Wilson, Ben Vereen, Dinah Shore, Eileen Farrell, Juliet Prowse, and Sandler and Young. He appeared on the children's television program Joya's Fun School in the role of "The Professor."

Henderson's arrangements of Ellington's music were recorded in 1999 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the title Classic Ellington. The following year, the St. Luke's Orchestra performed the work at Carnegie Hall, with jazz musicians Clark Terry, Dianne Reeves, and Regina Carter featured in the performance. Over two decades, Henderson also arranged more than one hundred pieces for the Canadian Brass; the group's Ellington album Take the "A" Train received a Grammy Award nomination in 2000. Henderson additionally recorded six albums as leader of the Luther Henderson Orchestra.

Among his other recognitions, Henderson received the 2002 AUDELCO Pioneer Award, shared with his wife, actress Billie Allen. The National Endowment for the Arts presented him with a posthumous Jazz Masters Award in 2004, and in 2008 the Juilliard School of Music established the Luther Henderson Scholarship Fund in his honor. Henderson died on July 29, 2003, following a long illness with cancer, at the age of 84. He was survived by his wife Billie Allen; three children, including actress Melanie Henderson of The Electric Company, Denson B. Henderson, and Dr. Luther L. Henderson III, a professor of music and humanities at Los Angeles City College; two stepchildren; two grandchildren; one step-grandchild; and one great-grandchild.