Henderson, Fletcher, Jr. (Fletcher Hamilton), 1897-1952

Dates

• Existence: 1897 - 1952

Biographical Statement

Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was a Big Band leader, arranger, and pianist. Henderson was the first Big Band leader to adapt for orchestra the improvisational approach to melody employed by jazz combos. Unlike the lofty and impressionistic portraits of “Jungle Music” created by Duke Ellington, or the frenzied, fast-lane forays into urban “jive” culture by Cab Calloway, Henderson set the mold for several decades of straight, solid swing. His innovation in musical scoring was to pit the brass against the reeds; in either order, one section would stat the melodic theme while the other group would reply by way of accentuated riffs. Although the ensemble was considered large at twelve pieces, the aural effect was quite streamlined. His band was most influential during the 1920s and early 1930s during one of the first cycles of musical market segregation.

Born in as James Fletcher Henderson to Fletcher Hamilton Henderson and Ozie Lee Chapman in Cuthbert, Georgia, in 1897. Henderson later changed his name to Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. and in college he gained the nickname “Smack,” which remained with him throughout his life. Henderson graduated from Atlanta University in 1920, majoring in chemistry. Although he intended to complete a graduate program in chemistry at Columbia University, he supported himself by working for Pace and Handy, a successful New York City African American publishing firm. When Mr. Pace left the firm to establish Black Swan Records, Henderson followed to serve as pianist and musical director. Not only did he direct the recording sessions, but also managed to the tours of popular artists Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. He also moonlighted with the Harlem Symphony and discovered his love for large ensembles and soon established his own jazz orchestra.

In 1922, his favored session musicians were incorporated into his first Big Band, for which he secured employment at New York City’s Club Alabam and the Plantation Club. After a six month residency at the Club Alabam in 1924, he became the first African American bandleader to play New York City’s Roseland Ballroom and continued as a regular for as long as he had a band. Often Bix Beiderbecke sat in with the band for those engagements in 1930. During the 1920s Henderson paid the highest salaries in the African American music field, although those wages were eclipsed by his competitors of the 1930s. Still, the later musicians passed up more lucrative orchestral opportunities in order to play with Henderson’s outfit. His alumni counted many jazz stars of the Swing era, including future orchestra leaders Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Benny Carter, Don Redman, Coleman Hawkins, John Kirby, plus stellar sidemen who would simply be indisputably noted as All-Stars. In the latter category such jazz stars included Hendry “Red” Allen, Lester Young, Ben Webster and Chu Berry.

Henderson’s orchestra disbanded in 1935 and soon after he was hired by Benny Goodman. For the next several years his arrangements, some of his own compositions, enabled the Goodman outfit to become the national rage to the extent that Benny became the “King of Swing.” The “King of Swing” acknowledged his debt to Henderson, not only in his 1939 autobiography, but also in his uninterrupted utilization of Henderson’s arrangements throughout the latter’s professional life. Henderson’s creativity paved the way for a major genre enjoyed by the American public with his original compositions interpreted by Goodman, including Big John Special, Sugar Foot Stop, Down South Camp Meeting, and Wrapping It Up.

In 1936, Henderson started another band for a series of extended engagements at the Grand Terrace Cafe in Chicago. Owned by Chicago gangster, Al Capone, it was the Windy City’s most popular nightspot for African American music during the 1930s, and Henderson’s orchestra maintained a residency until 1939. At the end of the residency in Chicago, Henderson returned to Goodman as arranger and pianist, but soon quit reportedly due to failing eyesight. In 1941, he organized one final orchestra that played at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. From 1946 to 1947, he arranged for Goodman again and served as concert accompanist for Ethel Waters. In 1950, he led a small yet successfully bop-tinged combo for New York City engagements at Bop City and the Cafe Society Downtown. That same year he suffered a severe stroke and passed in 1952.

Besides arrangements for Benny Goodman, Henderson contributed other charts to the bands of Isham Jones (later to become the Woody Herman Orchestra), the Dorsey Brothers, Glen Gray, Will Bradley, Teddy Hill and Jack Hylton. He was noted for having a sense of absolute pitch, and could score and entire composition in three hours without even the aid of a piano.

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