176: Cory Henry

There is a video you can find on YouTube of Cory Henry at four years old, playing Hammond organ in church, wearing a suit and tie. It’s very clear in the video that he was made to play music. So it should come as no surprise that over the last decade, Cory has become one of the most celebrated, influential, exciting keyboard players of his generation.

Cory was already building a name for himself in both the New York gospel and R&B communities before he joined the band Snarky Puppy, but by the time he left the band in 2015 to form his solo project The Funk Apostles, he had become a kind of phenomenon. During his time with Snarky Puppy he played on the Grammy winning song “Something” featuring Lalah Hathaway.

In recent years Cory has stretched out as a bandleader, songwriter and singer too. His new record Something To Say finds Cory writing and singing about “bigger things”. He says, “This is my opportunity to say what I want to say. Because my music is supposed to be in this time...I’ll get back to the party records later. Right now it’s important to be in the moment, in the time. I want when you hear the record to think ‘this is what’s happening now!’”

We got together on Zoom recently to talk about his early development playing music in church, learning to make music on Saturday night and on Sunday morning, how losing his parents at a young age affected his life and career, his experiences playing with saxophonist Kenny Garrett (Cory toured with Garrett at age 18), Snarky Puppy, and The Funk Apostles. Along the way he gives a master class on some of his favorite Gospel music, and an introspective explanation of much of the material on his new record.

Zooming with Cory Henry, October, 2020.

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