This is exerpted from the 13 part 1958 program is entitled “Swing”. John Hammond, as mentioned in earlier entry as someone largely responsible for making many of a jazz musician’s career, here talks about Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman, and how he brought them together, to swing the pop tunes of the day – the magic formula of success, i.e. a fantastic arranger, a bandleader who seeks perfection (the Benny Goodman Orchestra is as disciplined and tight an orchestra as they come), and a brilliant idea. Fletcher Henderson was in fact one of the key bandleaders, together with Don Redman, to help define the big band set-up and instrumentation, by moving away from the small group polyphonic sounds of the New Orleans jazz band, thereby creating the basis for the Swing Era big bands to florish. Here in this clip, we see a great performance of Henderson’s arrangement of “King Porter Stomp” towards the end.
