Tommy's Trumpets

Back in the day there were two Tommy Hendersons. Henderson the double bassist is still with us but Henderson the trumpet player passed away in the late 1970s. In the early days of BSH both Hendersons were the subject of a 2009 post and reference was made to the fate of the latter's instruments.

Now, all these years later, whilst doing some research, Gary Haley came upon the original post prompting him to send me some further information and a photo of Tommy's flugelhorn. Lance

" My dad was the saxophonist from Wilf Ray’s Mayfair days, and before, so I am the recipient of the Martin Imperial flugelhorn and as you can see from the photo, I still have it. 

My parents bought it for me from Tommy’s wife after he died. It was my Christmas present in 1977 or 1978 along with Tommy’s Constellation silver trumpet. Apparently several people wanted it at the time but she wanted me to have it. Tommy was one of my teachers from Stan Coates' Mortimer Road School rehearsal band. 

As far as I can tell from its serial number it was manufactured in Elkhart, Indiana around 1974. I think Tommy bought it in New York while working on a cruise. 

So, Tommy will have played it for no more than three years before he died. I played it until around 1980 but I’ve never played since about then so the flugel has pretty much been in storage". Gary Haley 

Original 2009 post.