How Did Louis Henderson Develop

In 1924, Louis Armstrong first joined Fletcher Henderson’s band . The way Armstrong played, the style he used, and the iconic music he created would come to be known as the origins of a new type of music called swing. His talent on the trumpet, now common knowledge, would not be fully and widely recognized for almost ten years after he joined Henderson, and the Swing Era as it is known today would truly begin.

In 1935, Benny Goodman’s band started with performances on the East Coast and wound its way across the country to California on a national tour, stopping to perform in major cities as it went. The music they played on their cross-country journey received mixed results from listeners, but by the end it was clear that their style of music

Many of the other swing groups in the 1930s would not have considered using his arrangement because of his race, but Jack Hammond suggested it and Goodman took his advice and acquired several of Henderson’s songs. At that time, Jewish and white bands, like Goodman’s, traditionally played “sweet tunes” while African American bands like Fletcher’s played “hot tunes.” This pattern remained largely undisturbed, even though many of the “sweet” swing groups actually preferred playing “hot tunes .” All along the tour, Goodman had tried playing the hot tunes he had purchased, and was met with mixed results; his main obstacle: none of the white audiences liked the music. Facing rejection, the band led off the Palomar gig with the sweet tunes they were accustomed to getting good reactions for, and were shocked by the lack of interest they elicited from the audience. Little did they know that the West Coast audience had been listening to the hot tunes on the radio all along the first part of the tour, and those were the songs they had paid to hear. When they realized this and began to give the audience what they wanted, Goodman’s band quickly won them over. They then went on to take over the top three spots on record charts in California, and local reporters labeled him the “King of Swing,” and his subjects simply could not get enough. The nickname

The ability of the music to make its fans want to dance was what fueled its popularity; at concerts, people danced in the aisles, and in dance halls kids Lindy Hopped for hours. However, some band leaders, Goodman included, were concerned that this dancing distracted the musicians and took away from the music . The children’s parents thought that swing music would lead them to break nearly all of the big social taboos of the time: drug and alcohol abuse, interracial relationships, and underage sex. Contrary to Goodman’s tolerant actions, racial tensions were only getting aggravated by the swing movement. When movies with swing music were filmed, the segments that featured African American musicians or dancers would be entirely cut out before being distributed to the Southern states, and some could even be marketed as separate short films . On top of the negative connotation jazz music already had, swing music became associated not only with the African American culture, but also with Jewish musicians. The general public was quick to link together all the aspects of society they did not like, regardless of any real connection, and as a result both groups suffered