[Dixielandjazz] Fletcher Henderson (was where does Dixieland end?)

[Gary Lawrence Murphy]

Doh! yes, *Johnny* -- I *have* to stop posting messages while trying to
work at the same time.

he doesn't give particulars, and of course the reliability of old jazz guys
is about as reliable as my own recollections of what's I'd read only a day
before ;)

*If whatever band I was playing with was the first to get a new number, we
would always cut the name off the music after we'd learned it, for other
musicians would come snooping around and try and find the name of the tune
if the crowd seemed to like it. If we had a new popular number worked up
real good, this made for more jobs. They would hire the band that had the
new stuff. Also, some of the guys would go into the music store and ask for
a new number. Well, the clerk would bring out the arrangement, fifteen or
eighteen parts in a folder. Then they'd ask for some obscure, old piece,
and when the clerk turned his back to look for it, then they'd slip out the
violin and cornet parts, so that if another band got it, they couldn't play
it anyway.*


On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 4:54 PM, Jack Mitchell <fjmitch at westnet.com.au>wrote:

>  Gary Murphy wrote: "I hadn't realized that Henderson's was a
> recording-only band, so I suppose it makes sense that they'd be in the
> studio every few weeks to knock out a few more hits."
>
> Fletcher Henderson worked in various clubs around New York whilst making
> the early  records, and became a full time band leader about the end of
> 1923. He was at the Roseland Ballroom when Louis Armstrong joined the band.
>
>
> " in the Jimmy St Cyr memoires he also recalls the early pre-ODJB groups
> rushing to the shops for the latest releases, and sometimes sabotaging
> other copies to prevent competitors from playing the new material, and in
> this sense the lineup may have been for pragmatic reasons, a minimum
> reasonable ensemble lineup that might let a local territory band emulate
> the Whiteman full-orchestra sound (Jimmy said the folios typically had
> about 18 parts)"
>
> I haven't read Jimmie St. Cyr's memoires (was he related to the banjo
> playing Johnny St Cyr ?) but 18 part orchestrations for dance or jazz bands
> before 1917??  Can anyone name one??  Paul Whiteman only had a normal size
> band until about 1923.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Jack Mitchell
>
>


-- 
*Teledyn Addendum: teledyn blogspot ca*
*eso: **EighthStreetOrchestra blogspot ca*