Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra - Swamp Blues

Fletcher Henderson led the most successful of the African-American jazz bands of the 1920's. In 1922, he led a band at the Club Alabam, which later moved to the Roseland Ballroom where they stayed for the next ten years. The orchestra continued to tour and record until 1939 when it disbanded, and Henderson joined the Benny Goodman Orchestra as the pianist and arranger. In 1943 Henderson left Goodman's band, although he remained Goodman's arranger. In 1950, health problems definitively prevented him from performing. This brilliant 1927 side was unfortunately very poorly recorded for the era: still acoustically and underrecorded on a disc made of mediocre shellac. I tried my very best to achieve as much definition and depth as possible in the sound transfer, which means I had to quadruple (!) levels of the original input. Hence I apologize for the quite strong disc surface rumble; still I hope you'll enjoy this outstanding performance.