The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz

The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz

by JeffreyMagee (Author)

Synopsis

If Benny Goodman was the King of Swing, then Fletcher Henderson was the power behind the throne. Not only did Henderson arrange the music that powered Goodman's meteoric rise, he also helped launch the careers of Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins, among others. Now Jeffrey Magee offers a fascinating account of this pivotal bandleader, throwing new light on the emergence of modern jazz and the world that created it. Drawing on an unprecedented combination of sources, including sound recordings, obscure stock arrangements, and hundreds of scores that have been available only since Goodman's death, Magee illuminates Henderson's musical output, from his early work as a New York bandleader, to his pivotal role in building the Kingdom of Swing. He shows how Henderson, standing at the forefront of the New York jazz scene during the 1920s and '30s, assembled the era's best musicians, simultaneously preserving jazz's distinctiveness and performing popular dance music that reached a wide audience. Magee reveals how, in Henderson's largely segregated musical world, black and white musicians worked together to establish jazz, how Henderson's style rose out of collaborations with many key players, how these players deftly combined improvised and written music, and how their work negotiated artistic and commercial impulses. And we see how, in the depths of the Depression, record producer John Hammond brought together Henderson and Goodman, a fortuitous collaboration that changed the face of American music. Whether placing Henderson's life in the context of the Great Migration or the Harlem Renaissance or describing how the savvy use of network radio made the Henderson-Goodman style a national standard, Jeffrey Magee brings to life a monumental musician who helped to shape an era.

$63.35

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 356
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 01 Jul 2004

ISBN 10: 0195090225
ISBN 13: 9780195090222

Media Reviews
Excellent. --Alex Ross, therestisnoise.com
Magee has written an important book, illuminating an era too often reduced to its most familiar names. Goodman might have been the King of Swing, but Henderson here emerges as that kingdom's chief architect, an innovative musician who played a crucial role in building music that, Magee maintains,
achieved 'a delicate consensus joining teenagers and adults, black and white, oral and written music, Tin Pan Alley and jazz.' --Boston Globe
An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music. Detailed analyses of numerous musical scores are juxtaposed against a view of the roller-coaster progress of Henderson's career in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps most important, Magee deals with the complex issue of Henderson's
identity as both a creative facilitator of other musicians' efforts and the frustrated composer-arranger of music that was a foundational element in the Swing Era--bringing triumphs that had eluded his groups to leaders such as Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and Isham Jones. --Don Heckman, Los Angeles
Times
Excellent.... Jazz fans have waited 30 years for a trained musicologist such as Mr. Magee...to create a book that evaluates Henderson's strengths and weaknesses and attempts to place him in the history of American music. --Will Friedwald, New York Sun
Nobody--not Ellington, nor Basie, nor Goodman--was more thoroughly involved with the beginnings of the Swing Era than Fletcher Henderson. Jeff Magee's book gives this jazz giant what he deserves: a sensitive and balanced examination of the pianist and arranger's personal history as well as a
judicious evaluation of his music. --Scott K.Deveaux, author of The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History
Magee does an excellent job of placing his subject in the context of uncertain social changes in the African American community. Well researched and highly readable. --Library Journal
Magee paints a vivid portrait of the central figures of early jazz and swing (Louis Armstrong is a 'strong streak of color in a crazy quilt') as well as the business of recording and touring in the 1920s and '30s. While Benny Goodman is lauded as the major force behind the Big Band sound, Magee
argues convincingly that Henderson was equally important in 'building the kingdom of swing.' --Publishers Weekly
Magee's treatment of Henderson and jazz music here is a loving, erudite and welcome one on a giant of the form. --Charleston Post & Courier
Fletcher Henderson occupies such a vital role in the evolution of American music that it comes as a shock that we had to wait this long for a superlative biography such as this. Jeff Magee has not only discovered hitherto unknown connections between Henderson's life and music, but has also linked
them to the cultural scene in which they existed. The jazz world owes Jeff Magee a big thank-you for undertaking such a massive project and for doing it so well. --Loren Schoenberg, Executive Director, The Jazz Museum in Harlem
A good musical study of Henderson has been long needed, and this is well researched, thorough, and well written. Of particular value is Magee's sensible and realistic view of the music business, which affords the reader a view into the lives of African-American musicians of the day. This is an
important study of the jazz of the 1920s and 1930s. --LewisPorter, Professor of Music, Rutgers-Newark University, and author of John Coltrane: His Life and Music

Excellent. --Alex Ross, therestisnoise.com
The Uncrowned King of Swing is the definitive biography of this musical legend. Magee's argument is well laid out and his writing style inviting. -- Popular Music and Society
Magee has written an important book, illuminating an era too often reduced to its most familiar names. Goodman might have been the King of Swing, but Henderson here emerges as that kingdom's chief architect, an innovative musician who played a crucial role in building music that, Magee maintains,
achieved 'a delicate consensus joining teenagers and adults, black and white, oral and written music, Tin Pan Alley and jazz.' --Boston Globe
An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music. Detailed analyses of numerous musical scores are juxtaposed against a view of the roller-coaster progress of Henderson's career in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps most important, Magee deals with the complex issue of Henderson's
identity as both a creative facilitator of other musicians' efforts and the frustrated composer-arranger of music that was a foundational element in the Swing Era--bringing triumphs that had eluded his groups to leaders such as Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and Isham Jones. --Don Heckman, Los Angeles
Times
Excellent.... Jazz fans have waited 30 years for a trained musicologist such as Mr. Magee...to create a book that evaluates Henderson's strengths and weaknesses and attempts to place him in the history of American music. --Will Friedwald, New York Sun
Nobody--not Ellington, nor Basie, nor Goodman--was more thoroughly involved with the beginnings of the Swing Era than Fletcher Henderson. Jeff Magee's book gives thisjazz giant what he deserves: a sensitive and balanced examination of the pianist and arranger's personal history as well as a
judicious evaluation of his music. --Scott K. Deveaux, author of The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History
Magee does an excellent job of placing his subject in the context of uncertain social changes in the African American community. Well researched and highly readable. --Library Journal
Magee paints a vivid portrait of the central figures of early jazz and swing (Louis Armstrong is a 'strong streak of color in a crazy quilt') as well as the business of recording and touring in the 1920s and '30s. While Benny Goodman is lauded as the major force behind the Big Band sound, Magee
argues convincingly that Henderson was equally important in 'building the kingdom of swing.' --Publishers Weekly
Magee's treatment of Henderson and jazz music here is a loving, erudite and welcome one on a giant of the form. --Charleston Post & Courier
Fletcher Henderson occupies such a vital role in the evolution of American music that it comes as a shock that we had to wait this long for a superlative biography such as this. Jeff Magee has not only discovered hitherto unknown connections between Henderson's life and music, but has also linked
them to the cultural scene in which they existed. The jazz world owes Jeff Magee a big thank-you for undertaking such a massive project and for doing it so well. --Loren Schoenberg, Executive Director, The Jazz Museum in Harlem
A good musical study of Henderson has been long needed, and this is well researched, thorough, and well written. Of particular value is Magee's sensible and realistic view of the musicbusiness, which affords the reader a view into the lives of African-American musicians of the day. This is an
important study of the jazz of the 1920s and 1930s. --Lewis Porter, Professor of Music, Rutgers-Newark University, and author of John Coltrane: His Life and Music


Excellent. --Alex Ross, therestisnoise.com
The Uncrowned King of Swing is the definitive biography of this musical legend. Magee's argument is well laid out and his writing style inviting. -- Popular Music and Society
Magee has written an important book, illuminating an era too often reduced to its most familiar names. Goodman might have been the King of Swing, but Henderson here emerges as that kingdom's chief architect, an innovative musician who played a crucial role in building music that, Magee maintains,
achieved 'a delicate consensus joining teenagers and adults, black and white, oral and written music, Tin Pan Alley and jazz.' --Boston Globe
An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music. Detailed analyses of numerous musical scores are juxtaposed against a view of the roller-coaster progress of Henderson's career in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps most important, Magee deals with the complex issue of Henderson's
identity as both a creative facilitator of other musicians' efforts and the frustrated composer-arranger of music that was a foundational element in the Swing Era--bringing triumphs that had eluded his groups to leaders such as Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and Isham Jones. --Don Heckman, Los Angeles
Times
Excellent.... Jazz fans have waited 30 years for a trained musicologist such as Mr. Magee...to create a book that evaluates Henderson's strengths and weaknesses and attempts to place him in the history of American music. --Will Friedwald, New York Sun
Nobody--not Ellington, nor Basie, nor Goodman--was more thoroughly involved with the beginnings of the Swing Erathan Fletcher Henderson. Jeff Magee's book gives this jazz giant what he deserves: a sensitive and balanced examination of the pianist and arranger's personal history as well as a
judicious evaluation of his music. --Scott K. Deveaux, author of The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History
Magee does an excellent job of placing his subject in the context of uncertain social changes in the African American community. Well researched and highly readable. --Library Journal
Magee paints a vivid portrait of the central figures of early jazz and swing (Louis Armstrong is a 'strong streak of color in a crazy quilt') as well as the business of recording and touring in the 1920s and '30s. While Benny Goodman is lauded as the major force behind the Big Band sound, Magee
argues convincingly that Henderson was equally important in 'building the kingdom of swing.' --Publishers Weekly
Magee's treatment of Henderson and jazz music here is a loving, erudite and welcome one on a giant of the form. --Charleston Post & Courier
Fletcher Henderson occupies such a vital role in the evolution of American music that it comes as a shock that we had to wait this long for a superlative biography such as this. Jeff Magee has not only discovered hitherto unknown connections between Henderson's life and music, but has also linked
them to the cultural scene in which they existed. The jazz world owes Jeff Magee a big thank-you for undertaking such a massive project and for doing it so well. --Loren Schoenberg, Executive Director, The Jazz Museum in Harlem
A good musical study of Henderson has been long needed, and this is wellresearched, thorough, and well written. Of particular value is Magee's sensible and realistic view of the music business, which affords the reader a view into the lives of African-American musicians of the day. This is an
important study of the jazz of the 1920s and 1930s. --Lewis Porter, Professor of Music, Rutgers-Newark University, and author of John Coltrane: His Life and Music

Excellent. --Alex Ross, therestisnoise.com
The Uncrowned King of Swing is the definitive biography of this musical legend. Magee's argument is well laid out and his writing style inviting. -- Popular Music and Society
Magee has written an important book, illuminating an era too often reduced to its most familiar names. Goodman might have been the King of Swing, but Henderson here emerges as that kingdom's chief architect, an innovative musician who played a crucial role in building music that, Magee maintains, achieved 'a delicate consensus joining teenagers and adults, black and white, oral and written music, Tin Pan Alley and jazz.' --Boston Globe
An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music. Detailed analyses of numerous musical scores are juxtaposed against a view of the roller-coaster progress of Henderson's career in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps most important, Magee deals with the complex issue of Henderson's identity as both a creative facilitator of other musicians' efforts and the frustrated composer-arranger of music that was a foundational element in the Swing Era--bringing triumphs that had eluded his groups to leaders such as Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and Isham Jones. --Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times
Excellent.... Jazz fans have waited 30 years for a trained musicologist such as Mr. Magee...to create a book that evaluates Henderson's strengths and weaknesses and attempts to place him in the history of American music. --Will Friedwald, New York Sun
Nobody--not Ellington, nor Basie, nor Goodman--was more thoroughly involved with the beginnings of the Swing Era than Fletcher Henderson. Jeff Magee's book gives this jazzgiant what he deserves: a sensitive and balanced examination of the pianist and arranger's personal history as well as a judicious evaluation of his music. --Scott K. Deveaux, author of The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History
Magee does an excellent job of placing his subject in the context of uncertain social changes in the African American community. Well researched and highly readable. --Library Journal
Magee paints a vivid portrait of the central figures of early jazz and swing (Louis Armstrong is a 'strong streak of color in a crazy quilt') as well as the business of recording and touring in the 1920s and '30s. While Benny Goodman is lauded as the major force behind the Big Band sound, Magee argues convincingly that Henderson was equally important in 'building the kingdom of swing.' --Publishers Weekly
Magee's treatment of Henderson and jazz music here is a loving, erudite and welcome one on a giant of the form. --Charleston Post & Courier
Fletcher Henderson occupies such a vital role in the evolution of American music that it comes as a shock that we had to wait this long for a superlative biography such as this. Jeff Magee has not only discovered hitherto unknown connections between Henderson's life and music, but has also linked them to the cultural scene in which they existed. The jazz world owes Jeff Magee a big thank-you for undertaking such a massive project and for doing it so well. --Loren Schoenberg, Executive Director, The Jazz Museum in Harlem
A good musical study of Henderson has been long needed, and this is well researched, thorough, and well written. Of particular value is Magee's sensible and realistic view of the music business, which affords the reader a view into the lives of African-American musicians of the day. This is an important study of the jazz of the 1920s and 1930s. --Lewis Porter, Professor of Music, Rutgers-Newark University, and author of John Coltrane: His Life and Music


Excellent. --Alex Ross, therestisnoise.com
The Uncrowned King of Swing is the definitive biography of this musical legend. Magee's argument is well laid out and his writing style inviting. -- Popular Music and Society
Magee has written an important book, illuminating an era too often reduced to its most familiar names. Goodman might have been the King of Swing, but Henderson here emerges as that kingdom's chief architect, an innovative musician who played a crucial role in building music that, Magee maintains, achieved 'a delicate consensus joining teenagers and adults, black and white, oral and written music, Tin Pan Alley and jazz.' --Boston Globe
An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music. Detailed analyses of numerous musical scores are juxtaposed against a view of the roller-coaster progress of Henderson's career in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps most important, Magee deals with the complex issue of Henderson's identity as both a creative fa

Excellent. --Alex Ross, therestisnoise.com


The Uncrowned King of Swing is the definitive biography of this musical legend. Magee's argument is well laid out and his writing style inviting. -- Popular Music and Society


Magee has written an important book, illuminating an era too often reduced to its most familiar names. Goodman might have been the King of Swing, but Henderson here emerges as that kingdom's chief architect, an innovative musician who played a crucial role in building music that, Magee maintains, achieved 'a delicate consensus joining teenagers and adults, black and white, oral and written music, Tin Pan Alley and jazz.' --Boston Globe


An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music. Detailed analyses of numerous musical scores are juxtaposed against a view of the roller-coaster progress of Henderson's career in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps most important, Magee deals with the complex issue of Henderson's identity as both a creative facilitator of other musicians' efforts and the frustrated composer-arranger of music that was a foundational element in the Swing Era--bringing triumphs that had eluded his groups to leaders such as Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and Isham Jones. --Don Heckman, Los AngelesTimes


Excellent.... Jazz fans have waited 30 years for a trained musicologist such as Mr. Magee...to create a book that evaluates Henderson's strengths and weaknesses and attempts to place him in the history of American music. --Will Friedwald, New York Sun


Nobody--not Ellington, nor Basie, nor Goodman--was more thoroughly involved with the beginnings of the Swing Era than Fletcher Henderson. Jeff Magee's book gives this jazz giant what he deserves: a sensitive and balanced examination of the pianist and arranger's personal history as well as a judicious evaluation of his music. --Scott K. Deveaux, author of The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History


Magee does an excellent job of pla



Magee does an excellent job of placing his subject in the context of uncertain social changes in the African American community. Well researched and highly readable. --Library Journal


An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music. Detailed analyses of numerous musical scores are juxtaposed against a view of the roller-coaster progress of Henderson's career in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps most important, Magee deals with the complex issue of Henderson's identity as both a creative facilitator of other musicians' efforts and the frustrated composer-arranger of music that was a foundational element in the Swing Era--bringing triumphs that had eluded his groups to leaders such as Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and Isham Jones. --Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times


Magee paints a vivid portrait of the central figures of early jazz and swing (Louis Armstrong is a 'strong streak of color in a crazy quilt') as well as the business of recording and touring in the 1920s and '30s. While Benny Goodman is lauded as the major force behind the Big Band sound, Magee argues convincingly that Henderson was equally important in 'building the kingdom of swing.''--Publishers Weekly


An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music. Detailed analyses of numerous musical scores are juxtaposed against a view of the roller-coaster progress of Henderson's career in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps most important, Magee deals with the complex issue of Henderson's identity as both a creative facilitator of other musicians' efforts and the frustrated composer-arranger of music that was a foundational element in the Swing Era--bringing triumphs that had eluded his groups to leaders such as Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and Isham Jones. --Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times


Author Bio
Jeffrey Magee is an Associate Professor of Musicology at Indiana University. His writings on jazz, ragtime, and American popular song have appeared in American Music, Lenox Avenue, International Dictionary of Black Composers, Musical Quarterly, the Cambridge History of American Music, and the Journal of the American Musicological Society.