The Doctor Is In: Eddie Henderson On Life As 'The Funk Surgeon'

Transcript

ARUN RATH, HOST:

Trumpeter Eddie Henderson had no choice. He had to be a jazz musician. He's been surrounded by talent since he was a kid. His mother was a dancer at the original Cotton Club.

EDDIE HENDERSON: Billie Holiday was her roommate, Lena Horne was her best friend, and Sarah Vaughan was her best friend.

RATH: His birth father was in a major vocal group called Billy Williams and the Charioteers, which was the number one black singing group in America, over and above the Ink Spots or the Mills Brothers.

RATH: His stepfather was a doctor to the stars.

HENDERSON: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly - I could go on and on.

RATH: Eddie Henderson has released what he considers a musical autobiography, an album that covers many of the tunes he's played throughout his career - "Collective Portrait."

(SOUNDBITE OF "COLLECTIVE PORTRAIT" SONG)

RATH: For Eddie Henderson, digging through all those old songs brought out a lot of memories.

HENDERSON: When I was nine years old, my mother and Sarah Vaughan took me down to see Louis Armstrong at the Apollo Theater. They took me backstage. Louis Armstrong gave my first lesson on his horn and mouthpiece of how to make a sound on the trumpet. I had no idea of the stature of this gentleman. You know, I was just nine years old. I really didn't know that that trumpet was going to turn into the rest of my life.

RATH: Now, people hearing you for the first time on this record and hearing you and I talk about greats like Billie holiday and Louie Armstrong might get the impression you're a pretty traditional jazz musician. But your fans know you as the Funk Surgeon. You've been known for playing some pretty funky electric music.

(SOUNDBITE OF FUNK MUSIC)

HENDERSON: Well, you know, music is an evolution you go through. At first, I wanted to sound like Miles Davis. Then I wanted to be a bebop player. Herbie Hancock came through town, and he needed the trumpet player for one week. That one week turned into the rest of my life.

RATH: (Laughter).

HENDERSON: That was the Mwandishi group that Herbie Hancock had from 1970 to '73.

(SOUNDBITE OF FUNK MUSIC)

RATH: People who know about you - if they know one detail about you beyond the trumpet, they know that you are a physician. You actually pursued a medical career at the same time you were playing the horn.

HENDERSON: Yes, I did.

RATH: And everybody would want to know how on earth do you manage to combine those two very demanding professions?

HENDERSON: Well, you know, when I was going to medical school, I knew then that in my real heart, I wanted to be a musician. But I went out of my way to go to medical school

'cause my stepfather and I - who - he was a doctor. He and I didn't get along. And he told me - challenged me, said I would never be as good as him because he was a doctor, and I wasn't smart enough. So that just made me mad. I said, oh, yeah? Watch. (Laughter).

So I went out of my way to prove him wrong, to tell you the truth. And I did - after the Mwandishi group broke up, you know, I had my license to practice medicine. And I was lucky enough to get a job in San Francisco at an office - wonderful gentleman, Dr. Jackson. I told him I would like to work in his office and help him, but my real love was music, and if I ever got a tour, I'd have to go. He concurred, said, fine, Ed. Just let me be the bongo and come with you, you know.

(LAUGHTER)

HENDERSON: And so it was ideal arrangement.

RATH: So was it during that residency - was that when you famously treated the genius composer...

HENDERSON: Oh, yes.

RATH: ...Piano-player Thelonious Monk?

HENDERSON: That is true. He stayed in the hospital for about six months. And I remember I wrote the - signed his discharge diagnosis - schizophrenia, unclassified type.

RATH: What was it like treating him? Did you guys talk about music?

HENDERSON: They really didn't know what to do with this gentleman, you know. He gave them a fit. They tried Thorazine on him, took it up to the limit - 3,500 milligrams a day. I mean, 50 milligrams would knock you or I out for two days, you know. But a psychotic person - the more they absorb and it doesn't knock them out shows you how really sick they are. After they found out that I knew who he was, they allowed me to take him to his gigs, you know, and it was just a little bizarre.

(LAUGHTER)

RATH: I guess it was kind of bizarre.

HENDERSON: That's the best way I can put it.

RATH: So as you sorted through a whole lot of memories for this album, what insights do you come away from this about the person you beat ended up becoming?

HENDERSON: Well, you know, when I was with Herbie Hancock in the Mwandishi era, I was more or less very lucky to be in that position, and his music was kind of avant-garde. And to tell you the truth, I really hadn't got a good foundation in playing jazz, in terms of playing changes, at that point. The so after that band broke up, then I started playing fusion, where I didn't have the foundation of playing standard tunes as well as my peers did. And so after the fusion era, I decided to go back and learn how to clean up my deficiencies. And I think that is the difference that I have now, and I think that comes out.

(SOUNDBITE OF "COLLECTIVE PORTRAIT" SONG)

RATH: That's Eddie Henderson. His new album is called "Collective Portrait." Eddie Henderson, it has been such a privilege to speak with you. Thank you.

HENDERSON: Oh, my pleasure, sir. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.