His other compositions include " Soft Winds". In 1925, with Henry Troy, he wrote " Gin House Blues", recorded by Bessie Smith and Nina Simone among others. His band around 1925 included Howard Scott, Coleman Hawkins (who started with Henderson in 1923, playing the tuba parts on a bass saxophone, and quickly moving to tenor saxophone and a leading solo role), Louis Armstrong, Charlie Dixon, Kaiser Marshall, Buster Bailey, Elmer Chambers, Charlie Green, Ralph Escudero, and Don Redman. Henderson developed his arranging skills from 1931 to the mid-1930s. After Redman's departure from the band in 1927, Henderson took on some of the arranging, but Benny Carter was Redman's replacement as saxophone player and arranger from 1930–31, and Henderson also bought scores from freelance musicians (including John Nesbitt from McKinney's Cotton Pickers). Henderson's band boasted the formidable arranging talents of Don Redman. Armstrong played in the band for only a year, because he could not grow accustomed to the arrangements and to the "pretension" of the other band members. Redman arranged Armstrong's repertoire with the King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, such as turning "Dippermouth Blues" into "Sugar Foot Stomp". By late 1924, the arrangements by Don Redman were featuring more solo work. The band quickly became known as the best African American band in New York. Henderson's offer on Octomade history when the Henderson band began their re-engagement at Roseland with Armstrong now in the orchestra. Henderson called on the 23-year-old cornetist Louis Armstrong for a second time to join the band. Although only meant to stay for a few months, the band was brought back for the autumn season. ![]() In July 1924, the band began a brief engagement at the Roseland Ballroom. Despite many erroneous publications indicating otherwise, this 1924 band was Henderson's first working band. In January 1924, the recording band became the house band at the Club Alabam at 216 W. His band at this point was only a pick-up unit for recordings, not a regular working band. His activities up to the end of 1923 were mainly recording dates for Black Swan and other labels. After hearing Louis Armstrong in New Orleans while on tour in April 1922, Henderson sent him an offer, but Armstrong refused because Henderson would not hire Zutty Singleton as well. Henderson toured with the Black Swan Troubadours featuring Ethel Waters from October 1921 to July 1922. From 1920 to 1923, he primarily played piano accompaniment for blues singers. When Harry Pace left the company to start Black Swan Records, he took Henderson with him to be musical director, a job which lasted from 1921 until 1923. Henderson now found that music would be more profitable than chemistry and left his job as a laboratory chemist to begin a life in music. In late 1920, he found work as a song demonstrator with the Pace and Handy Music Co. When his roommate was too sick to perform, Henderson took his place, which soon gave him a job as a full-time replacement. In New York City, Henderson shared an apartment with a pianist who worked as a musician in a riverboat orchestra. He did get a part-time job as a lab assistant in a downtown Manhattan chemistry firm, but this only lasted a year. After graduation, he moved to New York City with the intention of attending Columbia University for a master's degree in chemistry, but there is no evidence that he actually enrolled. He attended Atlanta University (where he was a member of the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha) and graduated in 1920 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and mathematics. At age 18, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and changed his name to Fletcher Henderson, giving up James, his grandfather's name. Īlthough a talented musician, Henderson decided to dedicate himself to mathematics and science. He pursued the studies with his mother and further engaged himself in lessons on European art. By age 13, Henderson possessed a keen ability to read music and sense pitch. His father would occasionally lock Fletcher in his room to practice for hours. His mother, a teacher, taught him and his brother Horace to play the piano. His home, now known as the Fletcher Henderson House, is a historic site. ![]() His father, Fletcher Hamilton Henderson (1857–1943), was the principal of the nearby Howard Normal Randolph School from 1880 until 1942. He grew up in a middle-class African American family. James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson was born in Cuthbert, Georgia, United States. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 17, 1982 Built by his father in 1888, the Fletcher Henderson House in Cuthbert, Georgia, where Henderson was born in 1897.
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