Fletcher Henderson's Casa Loma Stomp

Somehow we were ignorant of the recording of "Casa Loma Stomp"by Fletcher Henderson. The original, a hot swingin' affair by a catchy white band, is great. But Henderson's orchestra had the inimitable Coleman Hawkins, the brilliant Rex Stewart, and an impeccable sense of rhythm and cohesion. People must have been cutting up quite a rug in the early 1930s...

Fletcher Henderson's Christopher Columbus

Whilst recently listening to more recent recordings of Sun Ra's Arkestra performing classics from the Swing Era, we were reminded of Fletcher Henderson's excellent version of the tune. Henderson's band is cookin' while the Benny Goodman recording is a little lifeless. Of course, Sun Ra playing these pieces for several minutes and turning it into a fun romp is the best.

Sun Ra's Christopher Columbus

Listening to Sun Ra's musical tributes to the legendary Fletcher Henderson is always a delight. You can tell the Arkestra was having a lot of fun with this one.

Sun Ra's Hocus Pocus

We always enjoy hearing Sun Ra's tributes to Fletcher Henderson and all of our past heroes. "Hocus Pocus" was actually one of our early favorites from the legendary Fletcher, so hearing a "modern" take from the inimitable Sun Ra and His Arkestra is a delight.

Sun Ra's Queer Notions

Sun Ra loved to occasionally pay homage to our heroes. Heroes, in this case, includes important African American bandleaders and musicians in earlier epochs of jazz. Fletcher Henderson, whose "Queer Notions" is a rather strange composition, would have smiled had he heard this lively rendition from Sun Ra in the 1980. Sun Ra's cover is a bit funkier but captures that joyful, celebratory quality in swing that Henderson brought to the fore. Perhaps the contradictions of the song, alluded to by its title, capture the modalities of modern living. 

Shanghai Shuffle

 

Fletcher Henderson's 1934 recording of "Shanghai Shuffle" is pure swing. Somehow I had forgotten about this number, which perfectly illustrates Henderson's perfection of the swing aesthetic of the 1930s. His earlier 1924 recording, featuring Louis Armstrong, also swings. Unfortunately, in a more dated 1920s style than the excellent later recording.

The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz

The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz is not a biography that I was searching for. Nonetheless, Magee's text is a detailed analysis of Henderson's music across the entirety of his career, stretching from the 1920s "society orchestra" phase to swing. While I have long been a fan of Henderson, this text explains how Henderson the musician and arranger established the template for swing and jazz at its height as popular music (the Kingdom of Swing, a cultural symbol of the New Deal). It would seem that Henderson, and particularly skilled arrangers such as Don Redman, were able to breathe life into stock arrangements, incorporate the soloistic virtuosity of instrumentalists like Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins, and transform jazz through arrangements of Tin Pan Alley and popular tunes for Benny Goodman.

While Henderson himself is often in the background or his involvement with arranging prior to the 1930s is shrouded in some degree of mystery, it is clear that his orchestra coalesced different influences in jazz and popular music of the era to lay the foundation of became known as swing. Louis Armstrong, Don Redman, Benny Carter, Horace Henderson, Leora Henderson were clearly pivotal in the direction of the orchestra, and the number of musicians who were schooled in Henderson proved to be important in the future of the music. Without Don Redman and Fletcher, working collaboratively with excellent musicians, to parody, reinvent, signify, and expand the repertoire of popular song, blues, and jazz with an impeccable swing, the annals of the music's history would look quite different. 

While more details of Henderson's personal life could have shed light on some of his decisions, Magee considers sociological suggestions made by Gunther Schuller and others on the role of class, as well as cultural and ideological factors, in the development of the Henderson "sound." As a product of a "black middle class upbringing", with a respected father in Cuthbert, Georgia as his father, Henderson was a graduate of Atlanta University. College-educated, and reared in the respectability of his background, Henderson learned jazz and blues in New York, where he moved in 1920. His class background, as someone whose formal training in music was classical and church-based, he represents what Gunther Schuller referred to as a shift in jazz as African American musicians with more formal musical training entered the field. Henderson's musical career, analyzed by Magee, is a wonderful example of this trend on a micro-scale as his band's versatility and "symphonic jazz approach" to the blues balanced "hot" and "sweet." Unfortunately, with only the recordings, extant charts, and some personal testimonies, we still lack a full picture of how Henderson electrified live audiences and dancers in legendary clubs and ballrooms of New York...

Radio Rhythm

Another classic from Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra, 1931. The band's impeccable sense of rhythm and playfulness in interpreting the composition are pure delight. In a live context, perhaps at Connie's Inn up in Harlem, Henderson and the band must have delighted audiences. I'll have to search for more recordings of Billie Holiday's father on guitar, too. 

Hotter than 'Ell

Sun Ra and his "political theosophy" had a number of kooky elements. But he wasn't wrong to claim the swing bandleaders such as Fletcher Henderson were our heroes. This is swing at its best, with the excellent arrangements and musicianship of Henderson's orchestra. 

The Stampede

An early swingin' number from Fletcher Henderson's band. These cats were the early masters of swing, and exemplify how far the genre had moved since the early jazz recordings from the late 1910s and early 1920s. 

Chinatown, My Chinatown

"Chinatown, My Chinatown" is another one of those gems of the Swing era recommended by Schuller. Coleman Hawkins and the other members announce swing before its official birth here in 1930, performing this older standard with an undeniable rhythmic pulse. One can see how a Benny Goodman would not exist if it were not for Fletcher Henderson. 

Queer Notions

"Queer Notions" is one of the compositions of the swing era identified by Gunther Schuller as avant-garde or experimental for the era. It does indeed sound a few decades ahead of its time, almost as if it were a piece from the 1960s avant-garde movement. Clearly, Coleman Hawkins was a visionary for the period (early 1930s), as harmonically the piece does sound too "out there" for most of the bands of the decade. Unfortunately for us, the recording technology of the era meant the solo of Hawkins could not be stretched out.