When Henderson decided to add a third trumpet player in 1924, he looked for the hottest soloist he could fi nd. After several long-distance discussions with Lil Hardin Armstrong, Louis’s wife, he convinced her to persuade her husband to take his off er. At fi rst, Henderson’s well-paid, spiffi ly dressed mu-sicians didn’t know what to make of a country boy like Louis. Customers were also confused: the fi rst time Armstrong stood up to play a solo at Roseland, the audience was too startled to applaud. But Armstrong brought with him essential ingredients that the band lacked: the bracing authority of swing, the power of blues, and the improvisational logic of a born storyteller.
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122 ■ CHAPTER 5 NEW YORK IN THE 1920s
Th e standard had been raised, and no one understood that better than Red-man, who later acknowledged that he changed his orchestration style to ac-commodate Armstrong’s daring. In recordings like “Copenhagen” and “Sugar Foot Stomp” (an ingenious adaptation of King Oliver’s “Dippermouth Blues,”
with Armstrong playing Oliver’s solo), Redman’s writing began to take on a commanding directness and sharper rhythmic gait. Nor was his fanciful use of breaks and popular melodies lost on Armstrong, who employed them in the Hot Five sessions he initiated after his year with Henderson (see Chapter 6). Redman’s writing not only launched big-band jazz, but also served to link Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band (1923) and Armstrong’s seminal Hot Five (1925).
“Copenhagen”
Several historic threads come together in Fletcher Henderson’s 1924 record-ing of “Copenhagen,” a multistrain composition by a Midwestern bandleader (Charlie Davis), named not for the capital of Denmark but after a favorite brand of snuff . Th e Wolverines, a scrappy little band featuring Bix Beider-becke, had recorded it in May, and its publisher issued a stock arrangement of the song. To this Don Redman added his own variations, employing as-pects of New Orleans jazz (orchestrated polyphony), block-chord harmonies (standard for large dance orchestras), brief breaks, hot solos, old-fashioned, two-beat dance rhythms, and sectional call and response. Th e piece combines twelve-bar blues with sixteen-bar ragtime strains.
Louis Armstrong’s jolting blues chorus is an undoubted highlight in a per-formance also notable for the spirit of the ensemble and of individual contri-butions such as Charlie Green’s trombone smears and Buster Bailey’s whirling clarinet. Bailey joined Henderson around the same time as Armstrong (1924), extending the New Orleans tradition of clarinet obbligato into big-band jazz a decade before, as we will see, the clarinet came to symbolize the Swing Era.
Note the contrasting trios featuring three clarinets in the B strain and three trumpets in the D strain, and compare the notated polyphony in the A strain with the improvised polyphony (played against block-chord trumpets) in the E strain. Th e harmonically surprising fi nish inclined listeners to shake their heads in wonder and move the needle back to the beginning.
LISTENING GUIDE
copenhagen
FLETCHER HENDERSON
Fletcher Henderson, piano; Elmer Chambers, Howard Scott, Louis Armstrong, trumpets; Charlie Green, trombone; Buster Bailey, clarinet; Don Redman, clarinet and alto saxophone; Coleman Hawkins, clari-net and tenor saxophone; Charlie Dixon, banjo; Ralph Escudero, tuba; Kaiser Marshall, drums
■ Label: Vocalion 14926; Fletcher Henderson (Co-lumbia Legacy/Sony 61447)
■ Date: 1924
■ Style: early big band
■ Form: march/ragtime
What to listen for:
■ 16-bar ragtime strains alternating with 12-bar blues
■ sectional arranging: clarinet trios (B strain) and trumpet trios (D)
■ an early Armstrong solo
■ trombone and clarinet glissandos
■ notated polyphony (A) vs. improvised polyphony (E)
■ unexpected ending block-chord harmonies two
or more instruments playing the same phrase and rhythm, in harmony
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FLETCHER HENDERSON / DON REDMAN ■ 123
STRAIN A (16 bars)
0:00 The saxophones and trumpets move up and down through the chromatic scale in block-chord harmony.
0:04 Led by a trombone, the entire band responds with a cleverly written-out imitation of collective improvisation.
0:09 The opening passage is now given to clarinets playing in their lowest register. The re-sponse, once again, is scored collective improvisation.
STRAIN B (12-bar blues)
0:17 A high-pitched clarinet trio plays a bluesy melody. Underneath, the rhythm section (piano, banjo, drums, tuba) plays a lively two-beat accompaniment, with the drummer and banjo player adding a strong backbeat.
STRAIN B
0:29 A repetition of the previous twelve bars.
STRAIN B
0:42 Armstrong plays a well-rehearsed solo (the same solo can be heard on another take).
His playing is hard-driving, with a swing rhythm and a bluesy sensibility.
STRAIN C (16 bars)
0:54 The full band plays a series of syncopated block chords, punctuated by cymbal crashes.
Again, the response is scored polyphony.
1:02 The previous eight-bar section is repeated.
STRAIN D (16 bars)
1:11 A trio of trumpets plays a melody in a simple three-note rhythm.
1:17 During a two-bar break, the trumpets are interrupted by the clarinet trio performing a disorienting, rising glissando.
STRAIN A
1:28 The opening of strain A is played by the clarinet trio in its highest register.
1:36 The same passage is played by the saxophones.
STRAIN E (12-bar blues)
1:44 The trombone plays an introductory melody.
1:48 While the trumpets play in block-chord harmony, the clarinet and trombone improvise in New Orleans style.
STRAIN E
1:57 The repetition of strain E has a looser, more improvised feeling: the trombone plays with more glissando, while the clarinet sustains its high pitch for four measures.
STRAIN F (16 bars)
2:09 As the trumpet trio plays block-chord harmonies, the clarinet improvises busily underneath.
2:16 The break is divided between the banjo and the tenor saxophone.
CODA
2:26 The band returns to strain A.
2:34 Without pause, the band suddenly shifts to the beginning of strain C.
2:38 A high-pitched clarinet trio reintroduces strain A.
2:45 The band moves to block chords that descend precipitously outside the piece’s tonality.
With this bizarre gesture, the piece abruptly ends.
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124 ■ CHAPTER 5 NEW YORK IN THE 1920s