'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?

Subject: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 08:06 AM

I used to haunt Doug Dobell's Jazz Record Shop at 77 Charing Cross Road in London in the late '60s and early '70s. I remember buying two vinyl albums of music recorded by King Oliver and his orchestra in Chicago, and the track that has stayed with me ever since was Fred Rose's 1926 great composition "Deep Henderson". The sheet music I have for this has it as a song in F extolling the pleasures of a place called Henderson, followed by a piano solo version in G arranged by Rose himself with an extra trio section - trios were a common part of ragtime and early jazz compositions.

I've transposed the main tune into C, for tenor guitar, and tacked on the trio in the same key. So there's a short intro, a once-through A part, a B part with repeat and a C part (trio) with repeat. For style, I've applied as much of the feeling of the Oliver version as I can for a solo tenor guitar - and added guitar, bass guitar and mandolin to fill it out a bit!

Will Fly - "Deep Henderson"

But I've always wondered: where's Henderson...?

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: Eldergirl
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 08:57 AM

Thanks Will, that's great! and I have no idea where Henderson is, either. Sorry..

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 09:50 AM

http://yestercenturypop.com/2012/01/04/a-song-by-any-other-name-the-right-amount-of-deep-henderson/

Great site about the song.

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 10:01 AM

Cheers, GUEST - great site!

But... where's Henderson? :-)

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 10:13 AM

Dunno where Henderson is either.
But I did buy a copy of Django Reinhart withthe Glenn Miller Orchestra from them.
(remnants of the AEF band still in Paris - seem to remember Ray McKinley was on the record)

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 10:15 AM

bought from Dobell's Shop on one of my business trips in the "Smoke"

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 10:19 AM

possibly Henderson, North Carolina, USA, present population about 16,000. Located in Henderson County, population about 100,000.

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 10:24 AM

I listened to your performance, Will. You did an excellent job on an enjoyable piece.

Everybody, quit worrying about where Henderson is and listen to the music.

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 10:29 AM

LOL leeneia! Thanks for the kind words. I didn't even know Henderson was a place until I got the sheet music. I thought it was a person!

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 07:08 PM

There is another in Louisiana. It 'sprung up' in the 1930s. Present population is about 2000.

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: Will Fly
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 03:47 AM

All is revealed - apparently Henderson is a river - and deep!

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:41 PM

Let us remember that the original band hailed from Chicago, Illinois.
========
I couldn't find a Henderson River, but there's a Henderson Creek in Illinois, and it flows through Henderson County, at least some of the time. Wikipedia has this to say:

"Henderson Creek is a 64.6-mile-long tributary of the Mississippi River, which it joins in Henderson County, Illinois, near the villages of Gladstone and Oquawka.

Henderson Creek rises in Knox County northwest of Wataga and flows west...breaks through the bluffs forming the edge of the Mississippi River valley and proceeds 10 miles farther southwest, running parallel to the Mississippi and collecting several small streams running off the bluffs, including Fall Creek and Jinks Creek."

In 1926, the place where Henderson Creek 'breaks through the bluffs' was probably tree-shaded and mysterious. (It still may be.) Perhaps that's where the idea of Deep Henderson came from.

Meanwhile, I think somebody should write a song that features Oquawka and Wataga.

PS It is not pronounced 'crick.'

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 10:34 AM

It so happens that I visited the area where Henderson Creek is just last month. We took the train across the Mississippi River (saw a flock of egrets in the shallows) and traveled across Illinois to Peoria, where we took a paddle-boat jaunt on the Illinois River.

The fields were fertile, the trees abundant and colorful, and the river was bigger than I had ever imagined. We saw bald eagles, pelicans, coots, ducks and hawks.

I can easily imagine a man who grew up there missing it after he moves to Chicago to get a job.

Subject: RE: 'Deep Henderson', but where's Henderson?
From: GUEST,Jim Ward
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 03:25 PM

Eric Townley's standard work on jazz titles, "Tell Your Story", gives the following info. on "Deep Henderson"- "Probably refers to the coloured district of the town of Henderson on the Ohio River in Henderson County, Kentucky". Eric spent many years tracking down information on many thousands of titles of jazz and blues recordings made between 1917 and 1960 for his two volumes. This all started when as a young lad in the 1940's he found out his 78 of Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" had nothing to do with the West End of London!