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Fletcher Henderson was the pianist/composer whose pre-swing era arrangements laid the foundation for the contemporary jazz big band. Born into a middle-class family on Dec. 18, 1897, in Cuthbert, Ga., Henderson studied European art music from his piano teacher mother. Ironically, his family frowned on the "low" music of spirituals, work songs and blues that would later form the backbone of modern jazz. Henderson earned a chemistry degree from Atlanta University and moved to New York in 1920 to do post-graduate work. Racism kept him from getting a job in the field. Instead, he worked for Pace-Handy Music Company, a black-owned publishing firm, demonstrating sheet music. When Harry Pace formed Black Swan Records, Henderson put together groups behind singers Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. The job offered a springboard to his bandleader career, which began at New York's Cotton Club in 1923. A year later he led a band at the Club Alabam on Broadway, then segued to the Roseland Ballroom. There he assembled a band that included Coleman Hawkins and Don Redman. In 1924, Henderson hired trumpeter Louis Armstrong. Though Henderson's band only played the social dance music of the day, Armstrong brought the influence of jazz to musicians and fans hungry for the new sound. At this time, music director Redman began working out the seminal arrangements that still dominate big band writing: call and response between brass and reeds; one section playing supporting riffs behind another; solos interspersed between sections. With Armstrong leading the way, the band recorded some of its best known works, including "Copenhagen," "Go 'Long Mule," "Shanghai Shuffle" and the band's first hit, "Sugar Foot Stomp." Though not the only band experimenting with jazz, Henderson's was among the principal role models for big bands through the mid-'30s. After Redman's departure in 1927, Henderson took over most of the arranging chores (with some contributions from Benny Carter). Easy to play, the arrangements were clean, spare and delicate, but the group's best known tunes, like "King Porter Stomp," "Down South Camp Meeting" and "Wrappin' It Up," generated an infectious swing. Henderson boasted an affinity for discovering new talent (Lester Young also rose from this band), but his poor management skills cost him players who defected to other bands. Financial woes in 1934 forced him to sell some of his best arrangements to Benny Goodman, then starting his own band. Still, the arrangements fueled Goodman's rise and the popularity of swing era bands from 1935-'45 and continued to vault Henderson's cachet. Henderson joined Goodman as a full-time arranger and occasional pianist in 1939. He returned to leading his own groups in 1941. Henderson suffered a severe stroke in December 1950, which left him partially paralyzed till his death. He died on Dec. 29, 1952, in New York City. In 1973, Henderson was elected by the Critics into the Down Beat Hall of Fame. |