Woody Herman

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Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his death in 1987. His bands often played music that was cutting edge and experimental; their recordings received numerous Grammy nominations.

Early life and career

Herman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 16, 1913.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His parents were Otto and Myrtle (Bartoszewicz) Herrmann.<ref>Lees 5</ref><ref>Woody Herman changed the spelling of the familial name.</ref> His mother was born in Poland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His father had a deep love for show business and this influenced Woody at an early age.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

As a child, Woody Herman worked as a singer and tap-dancer in vaudeville, then started to play the clarinet and saxophone by age 12.<ref name="Music.us">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1931 he met Charlotte Neste, an aspiring actress;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the couple married on September 27, 1936.<ref>Visser 12</ref> Woody Herman joined the Tom Gerun band and his first recorded vocals were "Lonesome Me" and "My Heart's at Ease".<ref>Clancy 15</ref> Herman also performed with the Harry Sosnick orchestra,<ref>Clancy 16</ref> Gus Arnheim and Isham Jones.<ref>Clancy 17</ref> Jones wrote many popular songs (including "It Had to Be You") and at some point was tiring of the demands of leading a band and wanted to live off the residuals of his songs. Herman saw the chance to lead his former band<ref>Clancy 20</ref> and eventually acquired the remains of the orchestra after Jones' retirement.

The Band That Plays the Blues, 1936–1943

Herman's first band became known for its orchestrations of the blues, and was sometimes billed as "The Band That Plays the Blues". This band recorded for the Decca label, at first serving as a cover band, doing songs by other Decca artists.<ref>Visser 14</ref> The first song recorded was "Wintertime Dreams" on November 6, 1936. In January 1937, George T. Simon ended a review of the band with the words: "This Herman outfit bears watching; not only because it's fun listening to in its present stages, but also because it's bound to reach even greater stages."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After two and a half years on the label, the band had its first hit, "Woodchopper's Ball" recorded in 1939.<ref>Visser 14–15</ref> Herman remembered that "Woodchopper's Ball" started out slowly. "[I]t was really a sleeper. But Decca kept re-releasing it, and over a period of three or four years it became a hit. Eventually it sold more than five million copies—the biggest hit I ever had." Decca also used Herman to accompany its other artists and gave the band the name "Woody Herman's Woodchoppers" for such recordings. There were two notable hits using that title with Bing Crosby, "The Whistler's Mother-in-law" (with Muriel Lane singing with Crosby) in 1941<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Deep in the Heart of Texas" in 1942. In January 1942, Herman would have his highest-rated single (No. 1 in the Billboard charts), singing Harold Arlen's "Blues in the Night" backed by his orchestra. Other hits for the band include "Blue Flame" and "Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me". Musicians and arrangers that stood out included Cappy Lewis on trumpet and saxophonist/arranger Deane Kincaide.<ref name="Visser 17">Visser 17</ref> "The Golden Wedding" (1941), arranged by James "Jiggs" Noble, featured an extended (34 bars) drum solo by Frankie Carlson.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Be-bop and the First Herd, 1944–1946

The trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie wrote three arrangements for Herman, "Woody'n You", "Swing Shift", and "Down Under". These were arranged in 1942.<ref>Visser 19</ref> "Woody'n You" was not used at the time. "Down Under" was recorded July 24, 1942. Herman's commissioning Gillespie to write arrangements for the band and hiring Ralph Burns as a staff arranger heralded a change in the style of music the band was playing.<ref>Visser 19–21</ref>

In February 1945, the band started a contract with Columbia Records.<ref>Visser 25</ref> Herman liked what drew many artists to Columbia, Liederkranz Hall, at the time the best recording venue in New York City. The first side Herman recorded was "Laura", the theme song of the 1944 movie.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Herman's version was so successful that it made Columbia hold from release the arrangement that Harry James had recorded days earlier.<ref>Visser 24–25</ref> The Columbia contract coincided with a change in the band's repertoire. The 1944 group, which he called the First Herd, was known for its progressive jazz. The First Herd's music was heavily influenced by Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Its lively, swinging arrangements, combining bop themes with swing rhythm parts, were greatly admired. As of February 1945, the personnel included Sonny Berman, Pete Candoli, Bill Harris, Flip Phillips, Billy Bauer (later replaced by Chuck Wayne), Ralph Burns, and Davey Tough.<ref name="Lees 109">Lees 109</ref> On February 26, 1945, in New York City, the Woody Herman band recorded "Caldonia".<ref name="Clancy 68">Clancy 68</ref>

Neal Hefti and Ralph Burns collaborated on the arrangement of "Caldonia" that the Herman band used.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> "Ralph caught Louis Jordan [singing "Caldonia"] in an act and wrote the opening twelve bars and the eight bar tag."<ref name="Clancy 68" /> "But the most amazing thing on the record was a soaring eight bar passage by trumpets near the end." These eight measures have wrongly been attributed to a Gillespie solo, but were in fact originally written by Neal Hefti.<ref name="Lees 109" /> George T. Simon compares Hefti with Gillespie in a 1944 review for Metronome magazine saying, "Like Dizzy [...], Hefti has an abundance of good ideas, with which he has aided Ralph Burns immensely."<ref>Simon Says, p. 201</ref>

In 1946, the band won DownBeat, Metronome, Billboard, and Esquire polls for best band, nominated by their peers in the big band business.<ref>Clancy 90</ref>

Classical composer Igor Stravinsky wrote the Ebony Concerto, one in a series of compositions commissioned by Herman with solo clarinet, for this band in 1945. Herman recorded the work at Belock Recording Studio in Bayside, New York.<ref>Liner notes of the re-release by the Everest Recording Group Inc. in 1959, and released in January 1959 as SDBR 3009. The recording has been released on a CD by Everest EVC 9049.</ref> Herman called it a "very delicate and a very sad piece".<ref>Clancy 88</ref> Stravinsky felt that the jazz musicians would have a hard time with the various time signatures. Saxophonist Flip Philips said: "During the rehearsal [...] there was a passage I had to play there and I was playing it soft, and Stravinsky said 'Play it, here I am!' and I blew it louder and he threw me a kiss!"<ref>Clancy 89</ref> Stravinsky observed the massive amount of smoking at the recording session: "the atmosphere looked like Pernod clouded by water."<ref>"Jazz and Stravinsky"</ref> Ebony Concerto was performed live by the Herman band on March 25, 1946, at Carnegie Hall.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Despite the Carnegie Hall success and other triumphs, Herman was forced to disband the orchestra in 1946 at the height of its success. This was his only financially successful band; he left it to spend more time with his wife and family. During this time, he and his family had just moved into the former Hollywood home of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. One reason Herman may have disbanded was his wife Charlotte's growing alcoholism and pill addiction. Charlotte Herman joined Alcoholics Anonymous and gave up everything she was addicted to. Woody said, laughing: "I went to an AA meeting with Charlotte and my old band was sitting there."<ref name="Lees 147">Lees 147</ref> Many critics cite December 1946 as the actual date the big-band era ended, when seven other bands, in addition to Herman's, dissolved.<ref>"Finally, in December, 1946, almost a dozen years after Benny Goodman had blown the first signs of life into the big band bubble, that bubble burst with a concerted bang. Inside of just a few weeks, eight of the nation's top bandleaders called it quits-some temporarily, some permanently". George T. Simon The Big Bands Schirmer Books, New York. 1981. p. 32 Template:ISBN.</ref>

"The Four Brothers Band" and more Herds, 1947–1969

In 1947, Herman organized the Second Herd. This band was also known as "The Four Brothers Band". This derives from the song recorded December 27, 1947, for Columbia Records, "Four Brothers", written by Jimmy Giuffre,<ref>Clancy 120</ref> featuring the saxophone section of Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloff, Herbie Steward, and Stan Getz.<ref name="Clancy 121">Clancy 121</ref> The other musicians of this band included Al Cohn, Gene Ammons, Lou Levy, Oscar Pettiford, Terry Gibbs, and Shelly Manne.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Among this band's hits were "Early Autumn" and "The Goof and I". The band was popular enough that they went to Hollywood in the mid-1940s. Herman and his band appear in the movie New Orleans (1947) with Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1947, Herman was Emcee and also played at the third Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 7, 1947. The Valdez Orchestra, The Blenders, T-Bone Walker, Slim Gaillard, The Honeydrippers, Johnny Otis and his Orchestra, Sarah Vaughn, and the Three Blazers also performed that same day.<ref>“Woody Herman and His Orchestra” AD Los Angeles Sentinel Aug. 28, 1947.</ref>

Herman in 1976

Herman's other bands include the Third Herd (1950–1956) and various later editions during the 1960s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the 1950s, the Third Herd successfully toured Europe.<ref>Clancy 192</ref> He was known for hiring the best young musicians and using their arrangements.<ref>Clancy 275</ref> In the early and mid 1960s, Herman fronted a Herd featuring Michael Moore, drummer Jake Hanna, tenor saxophonist Sal Nistico, trombonists Phil Wilson and Henry Southall and trumpeters like Bill Chase, Paul Fontaine, and Duško Gojković. By 1968, the Herman library came to be heavily influenced by rock and roll.<ref>Clancy 271</ref> He was also known to feature brass and woodwind instruments rarely associated with jazz, such as the bassoon, oboe, and French horn.

In concert, as the evening wore on and the crowd started dissipating, Herman would often leave the stage and let the band continue the last set on its own; but Terry Gibbs confirmed that the band never sounded the same without Herman being present.<ref name="Gene Lees">Template:Cite web</ref>

"The Young Thundering Herds", 1970–1987

In the early 1970s, he toured frequently and began to work more in jazz education, offering workshops and taking on younger sidemen. For this reason, he got the nickname Road Father and the bands were known as the "Young Thundering Herds".<ref>Template:Cite Grove</ref> In January 1973, Herman was one of the featured halftime performers at Super Bowl VII.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In 1974, Woody Herman's band appeared without their leader for Frank Sinatra's television special The Main Event and album The Main Event – Live. Both were recorded mainly on October 13, 1974, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.<ref>Clancy 291</ref> On November 20, 1976, a reconstituted Woody Herman band played at Carnegie Hall in New York City, celebrating Herman's fortieth anniversary as a bandleader.<ref>Clancy 299</ref>

By the 1980s, Herman had returned to more straight-ahead jazz but augmented with rock and fusion.<ref>Clancy 312–313</ref> Herman signed a recording contract with Concord Records around 1980.<ref>Wilson, 1981</ref> In 1981, John S. Wilson reviewed one of Herman's first Concord recordings Woody Herman Presents a Concord Jam, Vol. I. Wilson's review says that the recording presents a band that is less frenetic than his bands from the forties to the seventies. Instead, it takes the listener back to the relaxed style of Herman's first band of the thirties that recorded for Decca.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Timeline of Woody Herman Bands

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Colors = 

 id:bbb   value:black       legend:Band That Plays The Blues
 id:bebop value:red         legend:Bebop/First Herd
 id:fb    value:green       legend:Four Brothers
 id:yth   value:blue        legend:Young Thundering Herds

LineData = 

at:01/01/1936 color:black layer:back
at:01/01/1941 color:black layer:back
at:01/01/1945 color:black layer:back
at:01/01/1951 color:black layer:back
at:01/01/1956 color:black layer:back
at:01/01/1961 color:black layer:back
at:01/01/1966 color:black layer:back
at:01/09/1971 color:black layer:back
at:01/09/1976 color:black layer:back
at:01/09/1981 color:black layer:back
at:31/12/1987 color:black layer:back

PlotData = 

 width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,–4)
 bar:Band That Plays The Blues    from:01/10/1936     till: 01/10/1944 color:bbb
 bar:Bebop/First Herd           from:01/10/1944     till: 08/10/1947 color:bebop
 bar:Four Brothers               from:01/10/1947     till: 31/12/1969 color:fb
 bar:Young Thundering Herds from:08/10/1970     till: 31/12/1987 color:yth



</timeline>

Last years

Herman continued to perform into the 1980s, after the death of his wife and with his health in decline, chiefly to pay back taxes that were owed because of his business manager's bookkeeping in the 1960s.<ref>Lees 272</ref> Herman owed the IRS millions of dollars and was in danger of eviction from his home.<ref name="Music.us"/> With this added stress, Herman still kept performing. In a December 5, 1985, review of the band at the Blue Note jazz club for The New York Times, John S. Wilson pointed out: "In a one-hour set, Mr. Herman is able to show off his latest batch of young stars—the baritone saxophonist Mike Brignola, the bassist Bill Moring, the pianist Brad Williams, the trumpeter Ron Stout—and to remind listeners that one of his own basic charms is the dry humor with which he shouts the blues." Wilson also spoke about arrangements by Bill Holman and John Fedchock for special attention. Wilson spoke of the continuing influence of Duke Ellington on Woody Herman bands from the 1940s to the 1980s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Before Woody Herman died in 1987 he delegated most of his duties to leader of the reed section, Frank Tiberi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Tiberi leads the current version of the Woody Herman orchestra.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive</ref> Tiberi said at the time of Herman's death that he would not change the band's repertoire or library.<ref>Clancy 397</ref> Herman died on October 29, 1987,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and had a Catholic funeral on November 2 at St. Victor's in West Hollywood, California.<ref>Lees 368</ref> He is interred in a niche in the columbarium behind the Cathedral Mausoleum in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Awards won by the Woody Herman orchestras with major publications: "Voted best swing band in 1945 DownBeat poll; Silver Award by critics in 1946 and 1947 Esquire polls; won Metronome poll, band division, 1946 and 1953.

A documentary film titled Woody Herman: Blue Flame – Portrait of a Jazz Legend was released on DVD in late 2012 by the jazz documentary filmmaker Graham Carter, owner of Jazzed Media, to salute Herman and his centenary in May 2013.

Gold records and charts (singles and albums)

Gold Records

Hits as charted singles

(Songs that reached the top of the US or UK charts)

Between 1937 and 1956, Herman had numerous hits on BillboardTemplate:'s charts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Year Title Chart peak position
US US
R&B
1937 "I Double Dare You" 18
1939 "At the Woodchopper's Ball" 9
1939 "Blue Evening" 9
1941 "There I Go" 13
1941 "Frenesi" 16
1941 "The Golden Wedding" 23
1941 "Blue Flame" 5
1941 "G'bye Now" (sung by Muriel Lane) 10
1941 "By-U By-O" (sung by Muriel Lane) 20
1942 "Blues in the Night" (sung by Woody Herman) 1
1942 "Rose O'Day" (sung by Carolyn Grey & Woody Herman) 18
1942 "Amen"<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 5
1943 "Four or Five Times" 17
1944 "Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me" 7 4
1944 "The Music Stopped" (sung by Frances Wayne) 10
1944 "By the River of the Roses" 12
1944 "Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet" 10
1944 "Let Me Love You Tonight" (sung by Billie Rogers) 18
1945 "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night in the Week)" (sung by Frances Wayne) 18
1945 "Laura" 4
1945 "Caldonia" 2
1945 "A Kiss Goodnight" 9
1945 "Northwest Passage" 13
1946 "Fan It" 4
1946 "Gee, It's Good to Hold You" (sung by Frances Wayne) 17
1946 "Everybody Knew but Me " 11
1946 "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" 7
1946 "Atlanta, G.A." 11
1946 "Surrender" 8
1946 "Mabel! Mabel!" 12
1947 "Across the Alley from the Alamo" 12
1947 "That's My Desire" (Woody Herman & the Four Chips) 13
1948 "Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)" 15
1948 "Sabre Dance" 3
1955 "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" 79
1956 "I Don't Want Nobody (To Have My Love but You)" 75

Hits as charted albums

(Albums charting history with Billboard magazine)

Year Album Chart peak/
year end
Peak, US Year end
1963 Encore: Woody Herman – 1963 136 (Aug.
1963)
1964 Woody Herman: 1964 148 (March
1963)

Grammy Awards

Grammy Awards (albums)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Awards table |- |rowspan="2"|Template:Grammy |rowspan="2"|Encore: Woody Herman, 1963 |Best Performance by an orchestra – for dancing |Template:Nom |- |rowspan="14"|Best Jazz Performance – Large Group (Instrumental) |Template:Won |- |Template:Grammy |Woody Herman '64 |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |Woody's Winners |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |Woody Live – East And West |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |Concerto For Herd |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |Light My Fire |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |Woody |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |Giant Steps |Template:Won |- |Template:Grammy |Thundering Herd |Template:Won |- |Template:Grammy |The 40th Anniversary, Carnegie Hall Concert |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |Live At The Concord Jazz Festival 1981 |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |World Class |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |50th Anniversary Tour |Template:Nom |- |Template:Grammy |Woody's Gold Star |Template:Nom Template:End

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Template:Awards table |- || 1987 ||| Woody Herman || Lifetime Achievement Award || Template:Won

Template:End

Further awards and honors

Discography

Studio albums

Template:Div col

  • Blues On Parade (Decca, 1940)
  • Sequence In Jazz with the First Herd (Columbia, 1948)
  • Swinging with the Woodchoppers with the First Herd (Dial, 1950)
  • Blue Prelude (Coral, 1950)
  • Woody Herman Goes Native (Mars, 1953)
  • Four Shades of Blue (Columbia, 1953)
  • The 3 Herds (Columbia, 1954)
  • Men From Mars (London, 1954)
  • Music For Tired Lovers (Columbia, 1955)
  • Ridin' Herd (Columbia, 1955)
  • The Woody Herman Band! (Capitol, 1955)
  • Road Band! (Capitol, 1955)
  • HI FI-ing Herd (MGM, 1955)
  • Jackpot! (Capitol, 1956)
  • Blues Groove (Capitol, 1956)
  • Hi-Fi Drums (Capitol, 1956)
  • Twelve Shades of Blue (Columbia, 1955)
  • Songs For Hip Lovers (Verve, 1957)
  • Woody Herman '58 featuring The Preacher (Verve, 1958)
  • Jazz, The Utmost! (Columbia, 1958)
  • Moody Woody (Everest, 1958)
  • Herman's Heat & Puente's Beat! (Everest, 1958)
  • The Herd Rides Again – in Stereo (Everest, 1958)
  • The Fourth Herd (Jazzland, 1960)
  • The New Swingin' Herman Herd (Crown, 1960)
  • Swing Low, Sweet Clarinet (Philips, 1962)
  • Woody Herman–1963 (Philips, 1962)
  • Hey! Heard The Herd? (Verve, 1963)
  • Woody's Big Band Goodies (Philips, 1965)
  • Woody's Winners (Columbia, 1965)
  • My Kind of Broadway (Columbia, 1965)
  • The Jazz Swinger (Columbia, 1966)
  • Jazz Hoot (Columbia, 1967)
  • Light My Fire (Cadet, 1968)
  • Somewhere (Cadet, 1969)
  • Heavy Exposure (Cadet, 1970)
  • Woody (Cadet, 1970)
  • Brand New (Fantasy, 1971)
  • The Raven Speaks (Fantasy, 1972)
  • Giant Steps (Fantasy, 1973)
  • Thundering Herd (Fantasy, 1974)
  • Children of Lima (Fantasy, 1975)
  • King Cobra (Fantasy, 1976)
  • Road Father (Century, 1978)
  • Flip Phillips/Woody Herman – Together (Century, 1978)
  • Chick, Donald, Walter, and Woodrow (Century, 1978)
  • Feelin' So Blue (Fantasy, 1981)
  • Presents Volume 2 ...Four Others (Concord, 1982)
  • Rosemary Clooney/Woody Herman – My Buddy (Concord, 1983)
  • World Class (Concord, 1984)
  • Woody's Gold Star (Concord, 1987)
  • Ebony (RCA Victor Red Seal, 1988) (Richard Stoltzman & Woody Herman's Thundering Herd)

Template:Div col end

Live albums

Template:Div col

  • At Carnegie Hall, 1946 Vol. I with the First Herd (MGM, 1952)
  • Woody Herman Sextet At The Roundtable (Roulette, R-25067 Forum F 9016 1959)
  • Woody Herman's Big New Herd – At The Monterey Jazz Festival (Atlantic, 1960)
  • Encore Woody Herman–1963 (Philips, 1963)
  • Woody Herman: 1964 (Philips, 1964)
  • The Swinging Herman Herd-Recorded Live (Philips, 1964)
  • Woody Live East And West (Columbia, 1967)
  • Concerto for Herd – At the Monterey Jazz Festival (Atlantic, 1968)
  • Herd At Montreux (Fantasy, 1974)
  • The 40th Anniversary, Carnegie Hall Concert (RCA, 1977)
  • Woody Herman Presents A Concord Jam Volume 1 (Concord, 1981)
  • Aurex Jazz Festival '82 (Eastworld/Toshiba, 1982)
  • Live At The Concord Jazz Festival (Concord, 1982)
  • 50th Anniversary Tour (Concord, 1986)

Template:Div col end

As sideman

With Buck Clayton

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Woody Herman Template:Authority control

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