Mike is primarily a clarinetist. He also plays the saxophone. He taught himself how to play the clarinet at the age of 13. Practicing 4-8 hours a day for the first 6 months, he quickly became the top clarinetist in his junior high school band. He formed his first band that same year - a junior high school combo that, by anybody's standards, was not the finest of groups! Mike wrote his first arrangement ("Around The World In 80 Days") for the junior high school concert band (again, not setting the world on fire!).
He had written dozens of original songs and several arrangements by the age of 14 (none of which were any good!). In his Freshman year of High School, and after only six months of playing, he won the 1960 National Maytime Review's Solo Contest. He won dozens of medals for solo contests during the next few years and earned a spot as 1st chair with the "All-Southern California Honor Band" in his senior year of high school (becoming the first person from his school to gain a chair with Southern California's most prestigious honor band). He was also a member of the Sepulveda Youth Band, under the direction of Claude Lakey (a famous mouthpiece maker and former arranger/musician with the Harry James Orchestra). During his high school years, Mike formed several bands that played many styles including rock 'n roll, polka, swing, and Dixieland.
Because he was trying to get a life going, Mike played very rarely for the next 18 years. During that time he spent a lot of time studying composition and arranging. It was during that time that he wrote his first Overture and his Symphony. Mike picked up the clarinet again in 1980. One of his first moves was to form a Dixieland band. The "Goodtime Dixieland Seven" began as a side attraction for the Long Beach Community Band (an adult concert band), but they soon started doing jazz clubs and other gigs. The GTDL7 is still together, some 30 + years later. In 1982, he formed the Mike Henebry Orchestra, a swing-era big band that is still very popular today. At about this time, Mike studied briefly with jazz clarinetist Abe Most.
In 1991, Mike formed the "All-Southern California Concert Band" a high-powered concert band made up of some of the finest first-chair musicians from Southern California concert bands as well as some top local symphony and jazz musicians. This "phenomenal" band played 5AAA music (the most difficult in concert band literature). The band was one of the finest concert bands ever assembled (flawlessly sight-reading things like Shostakovich's 5th Symphony, Armenian Dances, the William Tell Overture, etc!). After about three years, mostly because of the huge amount of work involved and the emergence of the CRHSO, Mike decided to disband the ASCCB.
In 1993, Mike formed the Crazy Rhythm Hot Society Orchestra. The CRHSO is a 1920s big band. Mike started writing a lot of the charts for the band (mostly transcribed from the original 1920's recordings). The CRHSO is now one of the top 1920s bands in the world. Mike has over 10,000 vintage recordings (78s, LPs, CDs, etc.), 2400 1920s arrangements, 2000 swing arrangements, 900 Dixieland and 300 concert band arrangements. He formed the American Society of Twenties Orchestras in 1993, now called the International Society of Twenties Orchestras (ISTO), an organization made up of almost all of the 1920's-style orchestras in the world. More than 90 bands belong to the society.
Mike has been transcribing the music for all of his bands for so many years now that, a few years ago, he realized that he had become one of the most prolific arranger/transcribers in the world. A few years ago, he started selling copies of his "charts" on this web site. He sells them very cheaply because his main goal is to keep this great music in circulation. He is also hired regularly to do a custom arrangement or a transcription (which later appear on this website). His main aspiration in life now is to write music for films (actually, it has been his dream since he was a teenager... a few years back).
Outside of music, Mike was an honors graduate in college, maintaining a 3.75 g.p.a. for 4 years, and is a Life Member of the Alpha Gamma Sigma Scholarship Society. Mike is now retired as the President of a corporation that developed from a business that he created in 1984. He was an Air Force Pararescueman (an elite special forces outfit) and has been a semi-pro football player, an 18-wheel truck driver, a parachutist, mountain climber, scuba diver, and an aerobatic pilot. He is also a tournament chess player (with an "expert" rating) and the author of a chess book, Chess Words of Wisdom. Another big interest of his, other than music and chess, is running. Mike has ran many marathons and ultramarathons (usuially trail runs of 50-100 miles). His highest achievement as a runner was finishing the world's toughest endurance event, the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile foot race in Death Valley... in July! He is one of about 500 people to have ever completed that race. He did this when he was 58 years old (he is now 67).
Mike and his wife, Arika, have two sons (David, age 31 and Robert, age 26).