The music of Fletcher Henderson and his orchestra in the 1920s.

Abstract

Although Fletcher Henderson's orchestra figures prominently in writings on early jazz, its reputation as the leading large black jazz ensemble of the 1920s rests on only a few of its 225-odd recordings. Most of these remain locked in a critical vacuum, disqualified from serious attention, because they do not fit latter-day aesthetic criteria for jazz. This study treats the Henderson orchestra's recordings as contributions to the motley fabric of popular instrumental music in the 1920s, of which jazz was a part. As a result, the relatively few jazz recordings the band made--those that influenced future jazz styles--are cast more sharply into relief. This approach invites the reader to consider Henderson's music-making with a consciousness more like that of 1920s listeners, innocent of the practices instilled by great jazz recordings yet to come. The first two chapters introduce Henderson and the musicians who played in his first band. Several sources are brought together for the first time to sketch a portrait of Henderson, his family, and his musical employment in the years leading up to the formation of his band. These chapters link Henderson and his sidemen to musical currents of the time and to the makers and ideals of the Harlem Renaissance. The remaining four chapters consider the band's development from 1923 to 1929. They focus on techniques of the band's chief arranger, Don Redman, and on solos by many of the band's leading musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins and Louis Armstrong. Several recorded performances are compared to contemporaneous published arrangements, showing how Henderson's band depended on and reworked such stock orchestrations. Throughout, the recordings are placed in a complex context, including the network of songwriters and jazz and dance musicians who composed the repertory, as well as the publishing and recording companies with which Henderson was associated. Placing the band's work in this context suggests that the early history of jazz in New York can no longer be told exclusively through its recordings. Two appendices consider aspects of Louis Armstrong's style in more depth than previous studies have attempted. Approximately one hundred original transcriptions illustrate the musical analyses.