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Vocalist Lauren Henderson is a sophisticated performer with a sound steeped in jazz, flamenco, R&B, and Latin traditions. The founder of her own Brontosaurus Records, she has garnered acclaim for her genre-bending albums, including 2015's A la Madrugada, 2018's Armame, and 2020's The Songbook Session with pianist Sullivan Fortner. She has also worked closely with vibraphonist Joel Ross and pianist Sean Mason, as on 2022's La Bruja, 2023's Conjuring, and 2024's Sombras.

Born in 1986 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Henderson started out taking piano lessons at a young age and grew up singing in church and her school choir. Influenced by her parents' record collection, she became interested in jazz. After high school, she attended Wheaton College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts with a focus on both music and Hispanic studies. While there, she expanded her skills, becoming the musical director of the school's gospel and R&B vocal ensemble VUJ (Voices United to Jam), was a member of the jazz band, and took classical voice and musical theater classes. There were also opportunities to study privately and in master classes with artists like Barry Harris, Jane Monheit, and Paquito D'Rivera. In 2011, she made her debut with the eponymous standards album Lauren Henderson.

Building upon her varied interests, Henderson traveled to Mexico, where she studied the traditional music of the Yucatán at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. She also spent time in Spain studying flamenco and jazz at La Universidad de Córdoba, before earning an Executive MBA from Brown University (RI) and the IE Business School (Madrid). The founder of her own Brontosaurus Records, Henderson returned with her sophomore production, A La Madrugada, in 2015. It featured a mix of standards and originals sung in English and Spanish.

She has continued to blend jazz, R&B, and Latin styles on albums like 2018's Armame and 2019's Alma Oscura, the latter of which featured contributions by Sullivan Fortner, Michael Thurber, Mark Dover, and others. In 2020, she again paired with Fortner for The Songbook Session. Also that year, she released her first holiday-themed album, Classic Christmas.

La Bruja arrived two years later and found Henderson working with an adept ensemble, featuring vibraphonist Joel Ross, guitarists Nick Tannura and Gabe Schnider, pianists Sean Mason and John Chin, and drummers Eric Wheeler and Joe Dyson. A similar ensemble joined her for 2023's magic-themed Conjuring, which found Henderson mixing standards alongside her original songs. With 2024's Sombras, she returned to a Latin-inflected style, once again backed by Ross, Dyson, Mason, and bassist Jonathan Michel. ~ Matt Collar