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Swing-Era Dossier

Fletcher Henderson

1897 – 1952

Born

December 18, 1897, Cuthbert, GA. Given name James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson Jr. Cultured middle-class household — mother taught him piano; father was a school principal. Legally took the name "Fletcher Hamilton Henderson Jr." while at university.

Died

December 29, 1952, NYC, age 55. Second stroke (the first, in December 1950, left him partly paralyzed and ended his playing career). Buried in Cuthbert.

Instruments

Piano (primary); arranger/bandleader.

Nicknames

  • "Smack" — origin variously given as a baseball term (he played catcher and "smacked" the ball) or, less likely, slang for a kiss.
  • "The Architect of Swing" — posthumous critical tag; he wrote (or arranged) the template every swing band copied.

Bands / years

  • Pace & Handy Music Co. song demonstrator (1920), then Black Swan Records house pianist (1921–23); toured behind Ethel Waters as her music director.
  • Fletcher Henderson Orchestra (1924–39) — Roseland Ballroom house band from late 1924; the first great Black big band. Key sidemen across the run: Louis Armstrong (Oct 1924–fall 1925), Coleman Hawkins (1923–34), Don Redman (chief arranger 1923–27), Benny Carter (alto + arranger c. 1928–31), Rex Stewart, J.C. Higginbotham, Russell Procope, Buster Bailey, Red Allen, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, Chu Berry, Sid Catlett.
  • Benny Goodman Orchestra — staff arranger (1934 freelance; full-time 1939); occasional pianist 1939–40.
  • Brief reformations of own band through the 1940s; sextet at Cafe Society 1950 until his stroke.

Active

c. 1920–1950.

Signature tunes (as bandleader/arranger)

  • "King Porter Stomp" (Jelly Roll Morton, 1924; Henderson's chart became the Goodman hit)
  • "Sugar Foot Stomp" / "Dippermouth Blues" (Joe "King" Oliver)
  • "Christopher Columbus" (1936 — biggest hit under his own name; composed by his tenor man Chu Berry with lyrics by Andy Razaf; arranged by brother Horace)
  • "Stealin' Apples" (Fats Waller / Andy Razaf)
  • "Sometimes I'm Happy" (Youmans/Caesar/Grey)
  • "Blue Skies" (Irving Berlin)

Famous compositions (things he actually wrote)

  • "Down South Camp Meetin'" (1934) — Henderson original, both composed and arranged; Goodman declined a co-credit and let him keep 100% of the royalty.
  • "Wrappin' It Up (The Lindy Glide)" (1934) — Henderson original, words and music.
  • "Hotter Than 'Ell" (1934)
  • Plus a stack of "head" arrangements credited to him. Most of the band's pre-1928 book was written by Don Redman, not Henderson; the most-imitated late-period chart, "Christopher Columbus," was written by Chu Berry and arranged by brother Horace Henderson. "Big John Special," often pinned on Fletcher, is also Horace's.

Interesting facts

  • Came to NYC in 1920 for a master's in chemistry at Columbia. No chemistry lab would hire a Black graduate, so he took a $22.50/week job demonstrating sheet music at Pace & Handy. Music was Plan B.
  • His real degree was in chemistry and mathematics from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta), 1920.
  • August 1928 auto accident in Kentucky: broken collarbone, facial cuts, slight physical injuries. But his wife Leora said afterward, "He never had much business qualities anyhow, but after that accident, he had even less." Sidemen started skipping rehearsals. The band that should have ruled the Swing Era unravelled instead.
  • When his band collapsed in late 1934, he sold his book to Benny Goodman cheap. Within months Goodman had 70 Henderson charts. The "King of Swing" rode Henderson's arrangements — including "King Porter Stomp," "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Down South Camp Meetin'," "Wrappin' It Up" — to global fame while Henderson watched from a piano bench.
  • Hired Louis Armstrong sight unseen in 1924 on Coleman Hawkins's recommendation; the corn-fed New Orleans trumpet kid showed up in oversized clothes and Henderson's wife thought he looked ridiculous. Within a year he reshaped the orchestra and left.
  • Discovered Coleman Hawkins at 18; Hawk stayed eleven years and became the first major tenor saxophonist in jazz inside that band.
  • Brother Horace Henderson was the arranger of two of Fletcher's biggest hits ("Christopher Columbus," "Big John Special") — a brother-overshadowed-by-brother subplot inside the bigger overshadowing.
  • 1939: joined Goodman's band as full-time staff arranger AND occasional pianist — the architect now working for the king on the king's payroll.
  • John Hammond on Henderson's band leadership: "the most easygoing, unbusinesslike band there ever was."

Sources