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

Capa
Oxford University Press, 13/01/2005 - 352 páginas
If Benny Goodman was the "King of Swing," then Fletcher Henderson was the power behind the throne. Now Jeffrey Magee offers a fascinating account of Henderson's musical career, 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 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. Whether placing Henderson's life in the context of 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. "An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music." --Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times "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." --Boston Globe "Excellent.... Jazz fans have waited 30 years for a trained musicologist...to evaluate Henderson's strengths and weaknesses and attempt to place him in the history of American music." --Will Friedwald, New York Sun
 

Índice

Out of the Jazz Tradition
1
1 A New Negro from the Old South
12
2 The Paul Whiteman of the Race
27
The Advent of Don Redman
39
4 A New Orleans Trumpeter in a New York Band
72
5 A Paradox of the Race?
97
6 Beyond the Ballroom
120
7 Connies Inn Orchestra
136
10 Never Say Never Again
233
Fletcher Hendersons Arrangements for Benny Goodman
245
Notes
273
Bibliography
293
Discography
301
Acknowledgments
305
Credits
309
Index
311

8 Playing in the Mud
166
9 Building the Kingdom of Swing
189

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Music of the World War II Era
William H. Young,Nancy K. Young
Pré-visualização indisponível - 2007

Acerca do autor (2005)

Jeffrey Magee is a Professor and Chair of Musicology in the School of Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 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.

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