Henry Franklin

Henry "Skipper" Franklin (born Los Angeles, California, October 1, 1940) is an American jazz double-bassist.

Franklin played on Hugh Masekela's 1968 number one single, "Grazing in the Grass," as well as with Masekela's band at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967. In addition, Franklin has played and recorded with Gene Harris & the Three Sounds, Hampton Hawes, Freddie Hubbard, Bobbi Humphrey, Willie Bobo, Archie Shepp, O.C. Smith, Count Basie, Stevie Wonder and Al Jarreau. Franklin's recording—composed by Sanifu Al Hall, Jr.-- "Soft Spirit" was featured on the breakbeat compilation Tribe Vibes as it had been sampled by the musical group A Tribe Called Quest.

Encourage by his father, Sammy Franklin, a jazz trumpeter and bandleader, he studied with Al McKibbon and George Morrow and listening to Paul Chambers and Doug Watkins.

While attending the Manual Arts High School he played with his first professional band – the Roy Ayers Latin Jazz Quintet. Around that time, Franklin worked with Harold Land and Hampton Hawes. Years later he would tour Europe with Hawes and record five albums with him. In Los Angeles, Franklin also played with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Billy Higgins and Scott LaFaro.

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