Trinidad-born jazz pianist and leading figure in the steelband movement in Britain who helped set up the Notting Hill carnival
Russ Henderson, who has died aged 91, was an eloquent jazz pianist from Trinidad and a leading figure in the steelband movement in Britain. For more than six decades he used music as a focus for community cohesion and the bettering of race relations, and was directly involved in the establishment of the Notting Hill carnival in London.
The idea of a carnival in Notting Hill came from the annual Lenten tradition of “playing mas” (masquerade) in the eastern Caribbean. In 1966 the community worker Rhaune Laslett invited Henderson to bring a three-piece steel band to play for the first Notting Hill fayre and pageant, an event she had organised in conjunction with the London Free School and the photographer, writer and activist John “Hoppy” Hopkins. The small steel band arrived at Portobello Green accompanied by a crowd of regulars from the Coleherne pub, and after having played for some time in a standing position, Henderson suggested everyone should embark on a road march. The procession, joined by the public, was repeated the following day, and became the first manifestation of what has since grown into an international event attended by more than one million revellers each year.
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