Belford Hendricks - The New York Years

The New York Years

Hendricks quickly became a big fish in the little pond that was Evansville. Though he already was middle-aged, Hendricks decided to move to New York to pursue a fullt-time musical career. He continued his musical education, studying composition and organ at New York University. He knew a member of the Count Basie Orchestra and was able to substitute for him on occasion.

By the mid-1950s, he met the man who was going to change his future. Clyde Otis, an ex-marine with a high school education, was a self-taught musician who was working his way up the ranks of the New York music scene. In 1957, he accepted a job as the first Black A and R man at Mercury Records and asked Hendricks to become his righthand man.

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