Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson shaped the foundations of jazz through his leadership of the pioneering large-scale ensemble, through his skill as an arranger and composer during the 1930s, and through an exceptional eye for emerging talent. From 1923 to 1939 an extraordinary succession of leading young Black jazz players moved through the ranks of his orchestra: trumpeters Louis Armstrong, Joe Smith, Tommy Ladnier, Rex Stewart, Bobby Stark, Cootie Williams, Red Allen, and Roy Eldridge; trombonists Charlie Green, Benny Morton, Jimmy Harrison, Sandy Williams, J.C. Higginbottham, and Dickie Wells; clarinetist Buster Bailey; tenors Coleman Hawkins (1924-1934), Ben Webster, Lester Young (whose brief stint left no recordings), and Chu Berry; altoists Benny Carter, Russell Procope, and Hilton Jefferson; bassists John Kirby and Israel Crosby; drummers Kaiser Marshall, Walter Johnson, and Sid Catlett; guest pianist Fats Waller; plus arrangers Don Redman, Benny Carter, Edgar Sampson, and Fletcher’s younger brother Horace Henderson. Even so, at the peak of the swing period Henderson’s group remained largely overlooked.

Although Henderson earned a degree in chemistry and mathematics, the only position available to him after arriving in New York in 1920 was that of song demonstrator at the Pace-Handy music company, a consequence of the prevailing racial barriers. When Harry Pace established the Black Swan label, Henderson, whose piano work remained serviceable rather than distinctive, played a central behind-the-scenes role by assembling ensembles and accompanying blues singers. He began recording under his own name in 1921, yet did not assemble a stable large ensemble until January 1924. With the forward-looking charts supplied by Don Redman, the group quickly rose to prominence. The earliest sides, of which Henderson produced a substantial number in 1923-1924, display both forward-thinking elements and a certain stiffness, marked by capable execution yet choppy articulation. Once Louis Armstrong entered the band in late 1924 and Redman supplied more fluid scores, the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra stood without serious artistic rivals until Duke Ellington emerged in 1927. By that time the group, following a residency at the Club Alabam, had settled into regular engagements at the Roseland Ballroom, although Henderson’s limited aptitude for management meant the all-star unit committed relatively few sides to disc during its strongest years, 1927 to 1930.

After Redman’s exit in 1927 and following interim stretches in which Benny Carter and Horace Henderson supplied most of the scores, Fletcher himself matured into a first-rate arranger by the early 1930s. The economic pressures of the Depression nevertheless weakened the orchestra, and mounting competition from rival bands, compounded by poor management choices and the departure of Coleman Hawkins, prompted Henderson to dissolve the ensemble in early 1935. Beginning in 1934 he started supplying Benny Goodman’s fledgling orchestra with refined versions of his strongest charts, among them “King Porter Stomp,” “Sometimes I’m Happy,” and “Down South Camp Meeting,” and Goodman’s versions became major successes precisely when Henderson’s own name remained unfamiliar to most listeners. In 1936 he formed another orchestra that scored an immediate success with “Christopher Columbus,” yet after three years he was forced to disband once more in 1939. Henderson subsequently served as a staff arranger for Goodman and even performed briefly in B.G.’s Sextet, though his own keyboard technique never advanced substantially. Throughout the 1940s he led sporadic groups, one of which, in the mid-decade, incorporated charts by the young Sun Ra. In 1950 he assembled an accomplished sextet featuring Lucky Thompson, but a stroke curtailed his activities and brought about his death in 1952. Virtually all of Henderson’s recordings as a leader, many of them highly charged, are now obtainable on the Classics label and, in more fragmentary form, through domestic reissues.