Charlie Dixon
b. c.1898, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, d. 6 December 1940. In 1922, banjo player, Dixon joined the orchestra of Sam Wooding before moving on to play with Fletcher Henderson. Although often overlooked in potted accounts of the development of big band music, Dixon was a skilled arranger and provided many musical scores for the Henderson band, which helped establish it as the forerunner of the commercial successes of the swing era. After leaving the band he continued in music mostly as an arranger. During the next few years he wrote for Henderson and, notably, Chick Webb, for whom he arranged That Naughty Waltz and Harlem Congo.