Fletcher Henderson: He Helped Put The Blues In Jazz And Jazz In Swing

Fletcher Henderson and his orchestra

If you enjoy the sound of big band, swing, and jazz, today marks a significant birthday in the history of that evolutionary strain of American music. Residents of Georgia can also celebrate this day as a birthday of one of their own. Who the subject of all this celebration? His name is Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952). He was born into a well-educated and musical family in the southwest Georgia town of Cuthbert. Henderson earned a degree in chemistry and mathematics but as a black man he had a difficult time finding work in those fields and soon turned to music to make a living. That musical career took him from accompanying Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and other blues singers, through the creation of an orchestra that included Don Redman and Louis Armstrong, to work as a composer-accompanist for Benny Goodman at a formative time for the swing era.

Henderson played an important role in bringing improvisational jazz elements into big band/dance band compositions. Both Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman credited his talent as an arranger for much of their success. It is interesting that his role in the development of American popular music was not well understood until academic studies of the history of jazz appeared late in the last century.

Here are two examples of the Henderson sound. The first is a 1927 recording of the Henderson orchestra, the second is a brief "arranging workshop" featuring Goodman and Henderson followed by the Goodman orchestra performing Henderson's famous arrangement of Blue Skies: