Community Musicians, building a worldwide Community Music.
Scores
for all instruments: 15,000+
(active and growing),
over 231,000 pages.
All genres and levels: Jazz & Blues, Rock & Pop, Classical & Contemporary, Film & Musicals;
books & biographies; methods, études, play-along tracks (MP3) for Jazz & Rock.
Access & benefits: US$15.99 one-time payment, valid for lifetime, full Library access.
Table of Contents
Fletcher Henderson: the 100 most inspiring musicians of all time
Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr., (born James Fletcher Henderson) (b. Dec. 18, 1897, Cuthbert, Ga., U.S.—d. Dec. 29, 1952, New York, N.Y.) was an American musical arranger, bandleader, and pianist who was a leading pioneer in the sound, style, and instrumentation of big band jazz.
Henderson was born into a middle-class family; his father was a school principal and his mother a teacher. He changed his name (James was his grandfather’s name, Fletcher Hamilton his father’s) in 1916 when he entered Atlanta University, from which he graduated as a chemistry and math major.
Best Sheet Music download from our Library.
In 1920, he moved to New York, intending to work as a chemist while pursuing a graduate degree. Although he found a part-time laboratory job, he immediately began getting work as a pianist. Within months, he was a full-time musician, and he began working for W.C. Handy’s music publishing company as a song plugger (i.e., promoting songs to performers). In 1921, he took a position as musical factotum for Black Swan records, the first black-owned recording company, for which he organized small bands to provide backing for such singers as Ethel Waters. He played piano for leading black singers on more than 150 records between 1921 and 1923 and then began a full-time career as a bandleader.
Please, subscribe to our Sheet Music Library.
If you are already a subscriber, please, check our NEW SCORES' page every month for new sheet music. THANK YOU!
Although Henderson had shown an interest in music from childhood, when his mother taught him piano, he knew little about jazz until he was in his 20s. His orchestra, made up of well-established New York musicians, at first played standard dance-band fare, with occasional ragtime and jazz inflections.
The band became more jazz-oriented in 1924 when Henderson hired the young trumpeter Louis Armstrong. At about the same time, the band’s musical director and alto saxophonist, Don Redman, conceived the arrangements and instrumentation that would become the standard for big bands. The rhythm section was established as piano, bass, guitar, and drums; and the trumpet, trombone, and reed sections composed the front line. Arrangements were constructed in the call-and-response manner (e.g., the brass section “calls,” the reed section “responds”), and many tunes were based upon “riffs,” identifiable musical passages repeated throughout the song.
Henderson was a superb arranger but a poor businessman. Although the band had played major venues and been heard on the radio and in recordings, the band’s finances were frequently in disarray, and musicians often left without notice to join other bands. He nevertheless managed to keep his band going until the mid-1930s, at which time he sold many of his arrangements to Benny Goodman, who used them to define the sound of his new band. “King Porter Stomp,” “Down South Camp Meetin’,”
“Bugle Call Rag,” “Sometimes I’m Happy,” and “Wrappin’ It Up” are among the Henderson arrangements that became Goodman hits.
Through the Goodman band, Henderson’s arrangements became a blueprint for the sound of the swing era. Henderson arranged for Goodman for several years and formed a short-lived band of his own in 1936. That year, Henderson issued “Christopher Columbus,” which became the biggest hit released under his own name. Henderson had little success in his subsequent attempts to organize bands and spent most of the 1940s arranging for Goodman, Count Basie, and others. He created a sextet in 1950 that became the house band at New York’s Cafe Society, but he suffered a stroke soon thereafter and was forced to retire .
Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra | Jazz & Swing Big Gand Music From The 20s Golden Age
Best place for sheet music download is here.
Track List:
00:00:00 Hop Off 00:02:52 The Dicty Blues 00:05:29 King Porter Stomp 00:08:21 Teapot Dome Blues 00:11:17 D Natural Blues 00:14:42 Go 'Long Mule 00:17:46 Oh Baby 00:20:32 Shanghai Suffle 00:23:51 Copenhagen 00:26:42 Feeling Good 00:30:07 Everybody Loves My Baby 00:32:57 I'm Feeling Devilish 00:35:41 How Come You Do Me Like You Do 00:38:51 Old Black Joe Blues 00:41:16 Alabamy Bound 00:44:21 Easy Money 00:47:25 Come On Baby 00:50:18 Sugarfoot Stomp
00:53:05 Freezy and Melt 00:56:08 What-Cha-Call 'Em Blues 00:58:58 Raisin' the Roof 01:04:29 Blazin' 01:07:25 The Stampede 01:10:40 Jackass Blues 01:13:51 Wang Wang Blues 01:16:53 Chinatown, My Chinatown 01:19:54 Henderson Stomp 01:22:45 Somebody Loves Me 01:25:46 The Chant 01:28:42 Keep a Song in Your Soul 01:31:59 Snag It 01:35:08 Rocky Mountain Blues 01:37:53 Sweet and Hot
01:41:18 My Gal Sal 01:44:46 Tozo 01:47:40 St. Louis Shuffle 01:50:40 Sugarfoot Stomp (No.2) 01:53:58 Clarinet Marmalade 01:57:09 Whiteman Stomp 02:03:13 I'm Coming Virginia 02:09:28 Variety Stomp 02:12:29 Singin' the Blues 02:15:35 St. Louis Blues 02:18:39 Goose Pimples 02:21:38 Sugar 02:24:37 Blue Moments 02:27:09 New King Porter Stomp