[Dixielandjazz] Fletcher Henderson

[Stan Brager]

On pages 86 and 87 of Walter C. Allen's book, "Hendersonia", both Henderson
and Don Redman remember that they had auditioned for a job at the Club
Alabam in New York City at the beginning of 1924. Both Henderson and Redman
agree that that gig was the start of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra.
Although the details which they each remember were slightly different, the
key is that both remember that Henderson had a recording band prior to the
Club Alabam gig and a working band thereafter. The New York Times had an ad
for the Club Alabam on January 16, 1924 which named Fletcher Henderson and
His Orchestra.

Stan
Stan Brager

-----Original Message-----
From: Bert [mailto:mister_bertje at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2014 8:32 PM
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Fletcher Henderson (was where does Dixieland
end?)

To make the point more exact: Fletcher was recording director with Black
Swan from 1921 - 1923. He started playing in some N.Y. clubs in 1922 but not
as the main activity and not at his request. It were the musicians in the
band who wanted to do it. 
When Black Swan went bankrupt, december 1923, there suddenly was a good
reason for Fletcher to concentrate more on public performances. So that
would have been around the start of 1924. Armstrong joined a couple of
months later, in june to be exact. 
So indeed I was a bit sloppy in suggesting that the band did not play live
before Armstrong, but I hope you forgive me with the general thought that
before 1924 their main activity was not directed to playing live.

Bert

> From: garym at teledyn.com
> Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 20:51:54 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Fletcher Henderson (was where does Dixieland
end?)
> CC: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> To: mister_bertje at hotmail.com
> 
> 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* 
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