Duke Henderson

Despite his extensive recorded output, Los Angeles-based shouter Duke Henderson left behind remarkably few verifiable details about his life. He launched his career in 1945 after Apollo Records, a New York company, dispatched a scout to the West Coast specifically to capture blues performances. Tenor saxophonist Jack McVea endorsed Henderson for the project, resulting in three sessions that year supported by an elite circle of Los Angeles musicians that included saxophonists Wild Bill Moore, Lucky Thompson, and McVea, guitarist Gene Phillips, bassists Shifty Henry and Charlie Mingus, and drummers Lee Young and Rabon Tarrant.

Although the Apollo sides displayed considerable swing, they moved too few copies to secure further releases from the label. Henderson subsequently moved among several imprints—Globe, Downbeat/Swing Time, Specialty, Modern, Imperial, and finally Flair—where, credited as Big Duke, he addressed contemporary sexual mores on the 1953 single “Hey Mr. Kinsey.” Eventually he abandoned blues shouting altogether and reemerged as Brother Henderson, serving as a minister and gospel disc jockey whose broadcasts reached listeners via the high-powered border station XERB, the same frequency long dominated by Wolfman Jack.