Diving into some Big Band this weekend, compliments of Woody Herman and His first Herd, recorded by CBS Radio at the College Inn from the Hotel Sherman in Chicago on March 27, 1947.
Woody 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.
The legendary Dizzy Gillespie wrote three arrangements for Herman, “Woody’n You“, “Swing Shift”, and “Down Under”. These were arranged in 1942. “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.
In February 1945, the band started a contract with Columbia Records. 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. Herman’s version was so successful that it made Columbia hold from release the arrangement that Harry James had recorded days earlier. 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. On February 26, 1945, in New York City, the Woody Herman band recorded “Caldonia”.
Neal Hefti and Ralph Burns collaborated on the arrangement of “Caldonia” that the Herman band used. “Ralph caught Louis Jordan [singing “Caldonia”] in an act and wrote the opening twelve bars and the eight bar tag.” “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. 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.”
So now you get to check out this broadcast, as it was heard live over CBS Radio on March 27, 1947
Still passing the hat – still knocking on doors:
