FLETCHER HENDERSON ORCHESTRA

Tidal Wave" (single-sided vinyl test pressing recorded on September 12, 1934 in New York by Decca). The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra was the most popular African-American band of the 1920s. The smooth, carefully arranged sound of Henderson's orchestra was a huge influence on the Swing style of the next decade. The Orchestra played at the Club Alabam on West 44th Street in New York from 1922 to July of 1924 and then moved to the Roseland Ballroom when Armand J. Piron's Orchestra vacated the job and returned to New Orleans. In 1924 Henderson  hired Louis Armstrong to replace Joe Smith on trumpet. Armstrong's thirteen months in the band caused quite a stir among New York Jazz musicians who had never heard anything like him. The orchestra also featured Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone, Buster Bailey on clarinet and Don Redman on alto saxophone and also contributing arrangements. When Armstrong left the band to return to Chicago to join Erskine Tate's Vendome Orchestra a succession of fine cornet and trumpet players played in the band.