Fletcher Henderson

One of the most important figures in the development of big-band music in the early 1930s, Fletcher Henderson set the standards by which early big-band jazz was measured. Even today, many big bands, including even some avant-gardists such as the Sun Ra Arkestra, still trace the paths charted by Henderson. An astonishing array of top-flight jazz players passed through the ranks of his band, including Louis Armstrong, Don Redman, Benny Morton, Coleman Hawkins, Russell Procope, Henry "Red" Allen, Chu Berry, and Edgar Sampson, himself a leading big-band arranger. But by the end of the '30s his star was waning, and in 1939 Henderson folded his band and joined Goodman as staff arranger and pianist.