H & F Henderson 1940 1941

Horace & Fletcher Henderson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 29, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Allegro Corporation
• ASIN: B000001NM4
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #882,818 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Shuffllin' Joe

2. Oh Boy, I'm in the Groove

3. Kitty on Toast

4. I Got Rhythm

5. You're Mine, You

6. Honeysuckle Rose

7. Chloe

8. Swingin' and Jumpin'

9. They Jittered All the Time

10. Sultan Serenade

11. Ginger Belle

12. Do-Re-Mi

13. When Dreams Come True

14. I Still Have My Dreams

15. Turkey Special

16. Flinging a Whing-Ding

17. Coquette

18. You Don't Mean Me No Good

19. Smooth Sailing

20. Ain't Misbehavin'

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Horace`s Special Treat, September 19, 2001

By 

Roel Abels (Groningen, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: H & F Henderson 1940 1941 (Audio CD)

If the name Horace Henderson doesn`t ring a bell, this orchestra and its leader could be a big surprise for you. Sure, Fletcher had a younger brother, who was an very original arranger in his own right. And like his brother,he played piano. Horace played a more fluent and inspired jazzpiano than his elder brother did, in a rhythmic and economic spare style, first strongly influenced by Earl Father Hines and later on he took elements of William Basie`s playing into his style. As an arranger, Horace contributed charts to Fletcher`s orchestra as early as 1931, f.i. `Hot and Anxious`, a number in which he incorporated a riff which later became famous as `In The Mood`. Besides assisting his brother, he later on was asked by Benny Goodman to write special arrangements for him: f.i. `Dear Old Southland`, `Always` and `Big John`s Special`. By 1940 Horace had his own orchestra and built it into one of the finest and delicate swing machines of its time. His arrangements were now different from Fletcher`s, because he began to lean on a lesser extend on the call and response patterns between the trumpets and saxes. He made the sections in the orchestra play longer lines than before. Because of this,his written music got a beautiful free and airy feeling to it. And the band was boasted with first rate musicians in each section. Listen f.i. to the serene`Kitty On Toast`, written in a minor key and based on the changes of Honeysuckle Rose, with Ray Nance playing a beautiful violin solo. Take `Flinging A Whing-Ding`, a far better attempt to incorporate boogie woogie into an arrangement than Tommy Dorsey tried with `Boogie Woogie` in 1937. In this number you`ll hear the Basie inspired piano playing of the leader, Emmett Berry on trumpet and the outstanding bass of Israel Crosby. Further soloists in the band are: Harold Money Johnson on trumpet, Elmer Williams on tenor and the marvelous Oliver Coleman on drums. The cd concludes with four tracks from one of the last Fletcher Henderson orchestras of 1941.
Tranfers were made from the original 78s. The sound quality is good. Five stars all the way. Buy it at once and enjoy!

4.0 out of 5 stars Out of Fletcher's shadow, January 7, 2009

By 

JJA Kiefte "Joost Kiefte" (Tegelen, Nederland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: H & f Henderson 1940 1941 (Audio CD)

Although Horace Henderson came to resent the fact that he was constantly being referred to as Fletcher's brother, there is no denying that that is what he was. Fletcher's fame rested on his achievements as an orchestra leader and, perhaps even more, as a talent spotter (the list of great names that went through his band's ranks is almost endless) and arranger (and if he didn't arrange for a band, the arrangements the swing bands played were more often than not based on Fletcher's style). That Horace's contributions to the succes of Fletcher's music was mostly ignored was one of the reasons of Horace's resentment. That he was a much better pianist than Fletcher may have been an other and that his arrangements were almost as eagerly sought after by numerous bands than Fletcher's perhaps a third.

This cd presents all of Horace's own big band recordings recorded over a period of nine months in 1940, and what a great body of music it is (and such a shame that there are only 21 of them!). The band's musicianship is impeccable, it has a fine blend, good soloists, such as the wonderful Emmett Berry on trumpet (he's equally at home in the low register, where he has a lovely raspy tone, and the high, without loss of brilliance or tonal purity), Ray Nance on violin, Edward Fant on trombone, Dave Young and Elmer Williams on tenors (whose contrasting styles are nicely juxtaposed like Lester Young and Herschel Evans with Count Basie) and an excellent, driving, though never overbearing rhythm section (with a splendid Oliver Coleman on drums, Hurley Ramey on guitar and later-on Israel Crosby, brother Fletcher's bassplaying discovery; also Horace's very fine contributions on piano should not be overlooked). The arrangements are not your typical Henderson fare but in a rather more advanced, rich and sonorous vein. There is only one title less than convincing, an insipid arrangement (and ditto rendering) of "You're Mine You". The remainder are all good to very good, with ample opportunity for the soloists to stretch out

The orchestra was disbanded shortly after an august recording date. Many musicians were scooped up by big name leaders such as Earl Hines (no less than four) and Duke Ellington. Horace then took over a band led by Nat Towles with which he recorded four more sides in october 1940 (equally good, but with more of an edge to them) and then it was all over.

The modernity of the younger Henderson's sides is illustrated very well by the remaining four items by a pick up band that Fletcher took into the studio some six months later (including Alec Fila and Peanuts Holland on trumpets, Mickey Folus, George Dorsey and Eddie Barefield on reeds, Benny Morton and Sandy Williams on trombone and John Collins and Walter Johnson in the rhythm section). And while the results are quite pleasing, they are too lightweight, too polite and even perhaps a touch too listless (certainly when you listen to Fletcher's piano solos and then go back a few tracks to some of Horace's) to compare favourably with Horace's wonderful 20 sides. On the aural evidence of just this cd, Fletcher would have been known as Horace's less talented brother. But there is no need to re-write history of course.

Although at times cd's from this source can be under par, there's little wrong with the sound quality of these sides (although I cannot compare, because as far as I know the Horace Henderson sides have never before appeared on cd; some are available on a Swedish Tax LP). Liner notes are no more than adequate (there's more on this band in Gunther Schuller's book on the Big Bands), but come with full discographical data.

So if you can pick up a copy of this cd anywhere, I would recommend you do so, because Horace Henderson certainly deserves more recognition than he has gotten until now. And the music eloquently speaks for itself.