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Great Encounters
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Why did Louis Armstrong leave Fletcher Henderson's orchestra in 1925 and
return to Chicago? Jeffrey Magee, author of The Uncrowned King of
Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz, writes about this landmark
decision in the history of music, and reminds us of Armstrong's not-so-hip
farewell gift to Henderson.
photo Frank Driggs Collection
Fletcher Henderson (center) and His Orchestra, late 1924. Left to right...Howard Scott, trumpet;
Coleman Hawkins, reeds; Louis Armstrong, trumpet; Charlie Dixon, banjo; Henderson,
piano; Kaiser Marshall, drums; Buster Bailey, reeds; Elmer Chambers, trumpet;
Charlie Green, trombone; Ralph Escudero, tuba; Don Redman, reeds. |
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Excerpted from
The
Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz
by
Jeffrey Magee
*
- Listen to the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, with Louis
Armstong:
Copenhagen ,
from 1924
Shanghai
Shuffle, from 1924
Sugar
Foot Stomp, from 1925
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By the fall of 1925, then, the musical synergy in Henderson's
band had reached unprecedented intensity. Henderson continued to hold court
for dancers at the Roseland, reaching thousands of other listeners through
its radio wire, and recording for a variety of record labels both with his
full orchestra and with selected members of the band as accompanists for
blues singers. And there were also continuous bookings in the summer between
seasons at the Roseland, large crowds in venues up and down the East Coast,
and consistently hyperbolic press coverage. By his own account, Armstrong
enjoyed himself and fit in musically and socially. "I had 'Wedged' in there
just that much," Armstrong wrote later, capturing rather well the new way
that Redman had learned to integrate Armstrong inside the strain. He later
referred to the band members as "those fine boys who treated me just swell."
Why, then, in November 1925, some thirteen months after
arriving in New York, did Armstrong leave Henderson and return to Chicago?
Several reasons have been offered. Armstrong's biographers tend to emphasize
reasons for dissatisfaction. James Lincoln Collier finds much "in the
situation….that made Armstrong feel uncomfortable." Laurence Bergreen
cites Armstrong's "all too brief solos" and "mounting dissatisfaction" with
Henderson's band. And Gary Giddins states, "The stopper was still on….The
full radiance of Louis's music and personality was simmering, waiting for
release."
Armstrong, admittedly, provided some fuel for that
perspective. Much later, he reflected that "Fletcher didn't dig me like Joe
Oliver. He had a million dollar talent in his band and he never thought to
let me sing." It's almost true: the only Armstrong vocal among his records
with Henderson consists of a brief tag ending in "Everybody Loves My Baby."
Yet the singing issue appears to be a red herring, since Armstrong noted
elsewhere that Oliver didn't let him sing either, but he does not suggest
that as a reason he left Oliver's band to go to Henderson. Armstrong also
indicates that discipline started to break down and the "cats" got "careless
with the music." Yet all together, Armstrong's published memories of the
band leave an at least ambivalent legacy, and they are actually more glowing
than bitter.
Other, nonmusical, reasons also account for Armstrong's
departure. Among them are that he was homesick for Chicago, where he had
a cadre of fellow musicians from New Orleans; that he missed his wife, the
pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong ("He used to write to his wife every day," recalled
Kaiser Marshall); and that she was pressing her husband to ratchet up his
career and become a bandleader with star billing and a salary to match. Lil
coupled a more classically oriented musicianship and a stronger entrepreneurial
streak than her husband. She had joined Louis in New York soon after his
arrival there but then returned to Chicago. There, the "bands were always
changing," she said." So I went to the Dreamland and I said: 'I want to put
a band in, I want to bring my husband back from New York, and I want him
to be featured, I want $75 a week for him, and I want his name out there
in front….' I had him make a sign -- 'Louis Armstrong, the World's
Greatest Trumpet Player.'" Having arranged that, she continued to urge Louis
to return home, but he resisted. As she recalled, she then issued an ultimatum
- "if you're not here by this date, then don't come at all" -- and Armstrong
relented. But even Lil conceded that Louis "kind of liked playing with Fletcher.
He wasn't anxious to be a star." Armstrong appears to have seen the situation
as less a career choice than a cut-and-dried personal matter. As he later
wrote, "I had to choose between -- My Wife + Fletcher Henderson's band. After
all -- I chose'd being with my wife."
The night before Armstrong left for Chicago, Henderson
threw a farewell party at Small's Paradise in Harlem. Thanks to Thomas Brothers's
publication of selected writings that reveal Armstrong's unedited, unvarnished
voice, we can now read the story of that party as written by its guest of
honor, complete with Armstrong's inimitably playful syntax, punctuation,
and capitalization style as performed on his second favorite instrument,
the typewriter:
| All the boys in the Band hated to see me leave -- And I hated
like hell to leave them too…We all had a wonderful time. We had a Special
reserved Table -- And the Place was packed + Jammed. And after Fletcher made
his 'Speech and I made my little 'Speech -- most of my 'Speech' was Thanks
to Fletcher for the wonders he had done for me -- etc. Then the whole Band
sat in and played several fine arrangements for the Folks -- Another Thrilling
moment for me. -- After we finished playing we went back to our table and
started drinking some more 'liquor. -- I gotten so 'Drunk until Buster Bailey
and I decided to go home. And just as I went to tell Fletcher Henderson Goodbye
as I was leaving New York for Chicago the next morning, I said - "Fletcher
'Thanks for being so kind to me." And -- er -- wer -- er -- wer -- And before
I knew it -- I had "Vomit" ("Puked") directly into Fletcher's
"Bosom." All over his Nice Clean 'Tuxedo Shirt. 'Oh -- I'd gotten
so sick all of a sudden -- I was afraid Fletcher would get sore at me, but
all he said -- "Aw - that's allright 'Dip'" (my nick name at that time [short
for "Dipper Mouth"]). Fletcher told Buster Bailey to take me home and put
me to 'bed, so Buster did. The next morning -- 'my 'Headache and all -- Boarded
the Train for Chicago. |
Armstrong's exit, it appears, was even more unceremonious
than his entrance thirteen months earlier. Had Armstrong stayed in New York,
it is hard to know how he, Don Redman, and Henderson's band might have developed
differently. Those final recordings of "T.N.T." and "Carolina Stomp" suggest
that perhaps Redman's arranging might have explored more new territory. But
soon, Armstrong was back in Chicago, playing in the band Lil had organized
at the Dreamland, becoming "the Talk of Chicago," and making records as leader
of the Hot Five, a group that included Lil and his old New Orleans friends
clarinetist Johnny Dodds, trombonist Edward "Kid" Ory, and banjo player Johnny
St. Cyr. Judging by the now separate paths of Armstrong and Henderson's band
over the next two years, Armstrong's gain from returning to familiar people
and places was greater than Henderson's loss. For, as Allen has noted, after
Henderson's New Orleans trumpeter left town, his New York band began climbing
"to greater heights."
The
Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz
by
Jeffrey Magee
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Excerpted from
The
Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz, by Jeffrey
Magee. Copyright © 2005 by Jeffrey Magee. Excerpted by permission
of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt
may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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