Luther Henderson

Luther Henderson was an American composer and pianist. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but moved with his parents to Sugar Hill in Harlem, New York at the age of four. He first studied mathematics at the City College of New York and later transferred to the Juilliard School of the Arts. after a short episode in the American army, he began to devote himself fully to music and worked, for example, with Duke Ellington or the singer Lena Horne. He later orchestrated various theaters on Broadway. He died in Manhattan at the age of eighty-four after a battle with cancer. In 2004, he received the NEA Jazz Masters Award.