Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson
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Background information
Birth name	James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr.
Also known as	"Smack" Henderson
Born	(1897-12-18)December 18, 1897 Cuthbert, Georgia, United States
Died	New York City, New York, United States
Genres	Jazz, swing
Occupation(s)	Musician, arranger, bandleader
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1921–50

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. (December 18, 1897 – December 29, 1952) was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musical arrangers and his influence was vast. He was often known as Smack Henderson (apparently due to his college baseball hitting skills). Fletcher is ranked along with Duke Ellington as one of the most influential arrangers and band leaders in jazz history, and helped bridge the gap between the dixieland and swing era.

Biography

Built by his father in 1888, the Fletcher Henderson House in Cuthbert, Georgia is where Fletcher Henderson was born in 1897. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 17, 1982

Fletcher Henderson was born in Cuthbert, Georgia in 1897. His father, Fletcher H. Henderson Sr. (1857–1943), was the principal of the nearby Howard Normal Randolph School from 1880 until 1942. His home, now known as the Fletcher Henderson House, is a historic site.

Henderson attended Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated in 1920. After graduation, he moved to New York City to attend Columbia University for a master's degree in chemistry. However, he found his job prospects in chemistry to be very restricted due to his race, and turned to music for a living.

He was recording director of the fledgling Black Swan label from 1921–1923. Throughout the early and mid-1920s, Henderson provided solo piano accompaniment for many blues singers. He also led the backing group for Ethel Waters during one of her national tours. Prior to mid-1923, Henderson's group was not technically a jazz band yet (more like a dance band), though its music was inflected with the ragtime rhythms that had been popular for some time. In 1922 he formed his own band, which was resident first at the Club Alabam, then at the Roseland Ballroom, and quickly became known as the best African-American band in New York. In the 1920s, he did not do very many band arrangements. By late 1923 and into 1924, the arrangements by Don Redman were featuring more solo work. But when Louis Armstrong joined his orchestra in 1924 (for only a year), Henderson realized there could be a much richer potential for jazz band orchestration. Henderson's band also boasted the formidable arranging talents of Don Redman (from 1922 to 1927). After Redman's departure from the band in 1927, Henderson took on the some of the arranging, but Benny Carter was Redman's replacement as saxophone player and arranger from 1930–31, and Henderson also bought scores from freelance musicians (including from John Nesbitt from McKinney's Cotton Pickers). As an arranger, Henderson came into his own from 1931 into the mid-1930s.

His band circa 1925 included Howard Scott, Coleman Hawkins (who started with Henderson in 1923 playing the low tuba parts on bass saxophone and quickly moved to tenor and a leading solo role), Louis Armstrong, Charlie Dixon, Kaiser Marshall, Buster Bailey, Elmer Chambers, Charlie Green, Ralph Escudero and Don Redman.

In 1925, along with fellow composer Henry Troy, he wrote "Gin House Blues", recorded by Bessie Smith and Nina Simone amongst others. His other compositions include the popular jazz composition "Soft Winds".

Henderson recorded extensively in the 1920s for nearly every label, including Vocalion, Paramount, Columbia, Olympic, Ajax, Pathe, Perfect, Edison, Emerson, Brunswick, and the dime store labels including Banner, Oriole, Regal, Cameo, Romeo, etc. From 1925–1930, he recorded primarily for Columbia, and Brunswick/ Vocalion under his own name, as well as recording a series of acoustic recordings under the name The Dixie Stompers for Columbia's Harmony and associated dime store labels (Diva and Velvet Tone). During the 1930s, he recorded for Columbia, Crown (as "Connie's Inn Orchestra"), ARC (Melotone, Perfect, Oriole, etc.), Victor, Vocalion and Decca. Starting in the very early 1920s, Henderson recorded current popular hits, as well as jazz tunes. As a result, Henderson and his band were extremely prolific: in 1924, they recorded 80 individual sides. His version of the pop tune, "I Can't Get The One I Want", recorded c. June 19, 1924 was issued on at least 23 labels.

At one time or another, in addition to Armstrong, lead trumpeters included Henry "Red" Allen, Joe Smith, Rex Stewart, Tommy Ladnier, Doc Cheatham and Roy Eldridge. Lead saxophonists included Coleman Hawkins, Buster Bailey, Benny Carter and Chu Berry. Sun Ra also worked as an arranger during the 1940s, during Henderson's engagement at the Club DeLisa in Chicago. Sun Ra said that on first hearing Henderson's orchestra as a teenager he assumed that they must be angels because no human could produce such beautiful music.

Although Fletcher's band was quite popular, he had little success in managing it. But much of his lack of recognition outside of Harlem had to do more with the times in which he lived, and the hard times that resulted after the 1929 stock market crash. However, because many of Henderson's records (Columbia, Brunswick, Vocalion, Victor and those issued on the many of the dime store labels) still turn up at junk stores, flea markets, collectors stores, on eBay and on private record auctions, there's no denying how popular his band truly was.

After about 1931, his own arrangements became influential. In addition to his own band, he arranged for several others, including those of Teddy Hill, Isham Jones and, most famously, Benny Goodman. Henderson's wife, Leora, said that a major turning point in his life was an auto accident which happened in 1928. Henderson's shoulder was injured, and he apparently sustained a concussion. Leora claimed that Fletcher was never the same, and that after this point he lost his ambition and became careless. According to Leora, the accident was a major cause of Henderson's diminishing success. She also claims that John Hammond and Benny Goodman arranged to buy Henderson's arrangements as a way to support him, and points out that Goodman always gave Henderson credit for the arrangements, and said that the Henderson band played them better than his own. In addition, Goodman and Hammond arranged broadcasts and recordings to benefit Henderson when he was ill.

Benny Goodman

In 1935, Goodman's Orchestra was selected as a house band for the NBC Let's Dance radio program. Since Goodman needed new charts every week for the show, his friend John Hammond suggested that he purchase some from Henderson. Many of Goodman's hits from the swing era were played by Henderson and his own band in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and usually were head arrangements that Fletcher transcribed from his own records, then sold to Goodman. However, brother Horace Henderson recounts (in Goodman's biography Swing, Swing, Swing by Ross Firestone) that the clarinetist made heavy demands on Henderson for fresh charts while his band was engaged for the Let's Dance show in 1934-35, and that he himself contributed to help Fletcher complete some of them. Vocalist Helen Ward also states that Henderson was delighted to hear the Goodman orchestra realize his creations with such impeccable musicianship.

In 1939, Henderson disbanded his band and joined Goodman's, first as pianist and arranger and then working full-time as staff arranger. He re-formed bands of his own several times in the 1940s and toured with Ethel Waters again in 1948–1949. Henderson suffered a stroke in 1950, resulting in partial paralysis that ended his days as a pianist. He died in New York City in 1952.

Contributions to jazz

Henderson, along with Don Redman, established the formula for swing music. The two broke the band into sections (sax section, trumpet section etc.). These sections worked together to create a unique sound. Sometimes, the sections would play in call-and-response style, and at other times one section would play supporting riffs behind the other. Swing, its popularity spanning over a decade, was the most fashionable form of jazz ever in the United States.

Henderson was also responsible for bringing Louis Armstrong from Chicago to New York in October 1924, thus flipping the focal point of jazz in the history of the United States (although Armstrong left the band in November 1925 and returned to Chicago).

Henderson also played a key role in bringing improvisatory jazz styles from New Orleans and other areas of the country to New York, where they merged with a dance-band tradition that relied heavily on arrangements written out in musical notation.

A museum is being established in his memory in Cuthbert, Georgia.'

Band Members Timeline

This list is composed from a 1971 letter to Chester Krolewicz. It was written by Walter C. Allen of Stanhope N.J. and was titled Mailing List of Fletcher Henderson Alumni. It was a letter asking the list to supply vital statistics on each member like date and place of birth along with early musical training and any other bands they played with. It appears Allen used this list for Hendersonia. The list appears to include additional band members not listed in the above article.

• Chester J. Krolewicz ("Chet Kruly" Stromberg), guitar: fall of 1943
• Vernon L. Smith, Trumpet: period around 1942
• Walter "WOOGIE" Harris, Trombone: 1942-1944
• Riley C. Hampton, Alto Sax, clarinet, arranger and musical director: 1942-1943 and 1946-1947
• H. Ray Crawford, Tenor Sax and arranger: 1942-1943
• Grover C. Lofton, baritone, other reeds, arranger, and band manager: 1942-1944. He also arranged for Billy Eckstine, and Duke Ellington.
• George "Chaney" E. Floyd, vocalist: 1942-1947
• Gordon Austin, Trombone: 1942-1943
• Frank Pronto, Saxes: fall 1943 to early 1944
• Tony DiNardi, Trumpet: 1944
• Robert S. Claese, Trombone: early 1944
• Elisha Hanna, Trumpet: 1945-1947
• Joseph D. Brown, Trombone: 1945-1947

Selected discography

• A Study In Frustration, Columbia Records, 1961
• Tidal Wave, GRP Records, 1994
• Ken Burns Jazz: Fletcher Henderson, Columbia/Legacy, 2000
• Sweet and Hot, Le Chant du Monde, 2007
• First Impressions 1924-1931 Vol. 1, Decca Jazz Heritage Series, DL 9227
• Swing's The Thing 1931-1934 Vol. 2, Decca Jazz Heritage Series, DL 79228

As arranger for Benny Goodman orchestra

• Sing, Sing, Sing (1992) (Bluebird/BMG)
• The Harry James Years, Vol. 1 (1993) (Bluebird/BMG)
• The Best of the Big Bands [under Goodman's name] (1933-1946/1989) (Columbia)
• Genius of the Electric Guitar (Recorded under Goodman sextet's name, this album released under Charlie Christian's name) (1939-1941/1990) (Columbia)

Further reading

• Walter C. Allen, Hendersonia - The Music of Fletcher Henderson and his Musicians - a Bio-Discography (1973)
• Jeffrey Magee, The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz (2004)
• Margery Dews, "Remembering: The Remarkable Henderson Family"
• Gunther Schuller, The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945 (The History of Jazz, Vol. 2) (1989)
• Scott Yanow, Swing: Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion (2000)

External links

• Fletcher Henderson at Find a Grave