Before Fletcher Henderson began writing his own charts, he built a kind of laboratory for others. His orchestra in New York became an arrangers’ workshop — a proving ground for talents like Don Redman, Benny Carter, his own brother Horace, and more — long before Henderson himself took up the pencil. Together they shaped a sound and a template every big band would soon envy — most famously, Benny Goodman’s.
Music: “Wrappin’ It Up” (1934); “Wha-Cha-Call ’em Blues” (1925); “D Natural Blues” (1928); “An American in Paris” (1928) (excerpt); “Radio Rhythm” (1931); “Tidal Wave” (1934); “Happy As The Day Is Long” (1934); “Hotter Than ’Ell” (1934); “Wrappin’ It Up” (1935); “Down South Camp Meeting” (1934, 1936); “King Porter Stomp” (1932, 1935); “Stealin’ Apples” (1936, 1937); “Can You Take It” (1933); “The Stampede” (1937).
Composers/Arrangers: Don Redman, Fletcher Henderson, Bill Challis, Horace Henderson, Benny Carter, Nat Leslie, Russ Morgan, Harold Arlen, Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Jelly Roll Morton.
Fletcher Henderson and his band
Fletcher Henderson (seated) with his band, 1936.
Don Redman, from I Heard (1933)
