Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra

Fletcher Henderson is celebrated as a primary architect of the big band swing era, but his career was deeply shaped by the blues. In the 1920s, he served as the house pianist and bandleader for Black Swan Records, providing elegant, jazz-inflected backing for classic blues singers like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Ethel Waters. He learned how to frame the raw power of the blues within sophisticated jazz arrangements, a skill that defined his later importance as the architect of big-band arranging and his arrangements' later use by Benny Goodman.