John Willie “Shifty” Henry was an American musician, most noted as a double bass and bass guitar player, and blues songwriter. He also played flute, violin, viola, saxophone, and oboe and was in demand as a session musician and arranger in Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s.
Henry recorded with and arranged for the elite of jazz and rhythm and blues, including Dinah Washington, Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, The Treniers, Illinois Jacquet, and Miles Davis. Henry maintained strong social as well as professional relations throughout the city and the music industry. The Shifty Henry All-Stars played regularly at New Year’s Eve balls thrown by socialite Dorothy Chandler and her husband Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times.
He is mentioned by name in a verse of “Jailhouse Rock” by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller: “Shifty Henry said to Bugs, for heaven’s sake, no one’s looking, now’s a chance to make a break.”[2]
Leo Fender selected Henry to receive an early electric Fender Precision Bass.
Born: October 4, 1921,
Died: November 30, 1958
just...BASS! 