Fletcher Henderson

Biography

Fletcher Henderson was a pioneering American bandleader, pianist, arranger and composer whose orchestra defined early big band jazz. From Cuthbert, Georgia, he built the leading Black orchestra in 1920s New York at the Roseland Ballroom, employing *Louis Armstrong* and *Coleman Hawkins* and developing, with *Don Redman*, the arranged section writing that ushered in swing. In the 1930s his arrangements powered *Benny Goodman*'s success, and Henderson became Goodman's staff arranger in 1939 while continuing to lead his own bands into the 1940s.