Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987), better known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States at around the start of the 20th century, mostly popular in the 1920s. ... A clarinetist (sometimes also spelled clarinettist) is a musician who plays the clarinet. ... A saxophonist is a musician who plays the saxophone. ... Ercole de Roberti: Concert, c. ... A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from 1935 until the late 1940s. ... A Bandleader is the director of a band of musicians. ...

Beginnings

Herman was born Woodrow Charles Thomas Herrman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 16, 1913. [Leader of the Band 4] His parents were Ray and Myrtle Herrman. [LOB 4-5] As a child he worked as a singer in vaudeville, then became a professional saxophone player at age 15. In 1931, he met Charlotte Neste, an aspiring actress. [Woody Herman: Chronicles of the Herd 13] They later married. Woody Herman joined the Tom Gerun band and his first recorded vocals were "Lonesome Me" and "My Heart's At Ease". [Clancy 15] Herman also performed with the Harry Sosnick orchestra [Clancy 16] and Gus Arnheim and Isham Jones. [Clancy 17] Isham Jones wrote many popular songs, including "It Had To Be You"[1] and at some point was tiring of the demands of leading a band. Jones wanted to live off the residuals of his songs. "While we were with Jones, we discussed the possibilities of [Woody being the leader] after we heard Isham was going to quit." [Clancy 20] Woody Herman eventually acquired the remains of Jones' orchestra after Isham Jones decided to retire. Nickname: Cream City, Brew City, Mil Town, The City of Festivals Location of Milwaukee in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin Coordinates: County Milwaukee Government  - Mayor Tom Barrett Area  - City  97 sq mi (251. ... Vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatre which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ... The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family, usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece like the clarinet. ... Gus Arnheim (born September 4, 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died January 1955 in Los Angeles, California) was an early popular band leader. ... Isham Jones (31 January 1894 – 19 October 1956) was a United States bandleader, violinist, saxophonist and songwriter. ...

The Band That Plays The Blues 1936-1943

Woody Herman's first band became known for its orchestrations of the blues and was sometimes billed as "The Band That Plays The Blues". ("The numbering of the early Herman bands has caused much confusion among fans and musicians. A few individuals consider Woody's first band or 'The Band That Plays The Blues,' the 'First Herd,' but among the majority of music critics and writers, the 'First Herd' refers to the band of 1944-1946.") [Clancy 53] The blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that typically follows a twelve-bar structure. ...

On April 12, 1939 Woody Herman recorded his greatest commercial and mega popular hit record "Woodchoppers' Ball", featuring Woody on clarinet, Neal Ried on trombone, Saxie Mansfield on Sax, Steady Nelson on trumpet and Hy White on guitar. Other big early hits were "Blue Flame," "Dupree Blues", "Blues Upstairs and Downstairs" and "Blues in the Night" with Joe Bishop on flugelhorn, Tommy Linehans on piano, Cappy Lewis on trumpet, and the strong rhythm team of Walt Yoder and Frankie Carlson. April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full year calendar). ... Two soprano clarinets: a Bâ™­ clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family, usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece like the clarinet. ... The trumpet is the highest brass instrument in register, above the horn, trombone, euphonium and tuba. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Parts of the guitar. ... Blues in the Night is a popular song which has become a pop standard. ... A standard 3-valved Bb flugelhorn. ... A short grand piano, with the top up. ... For the popular Tamil film, see Rhythm (film) Rhythm (Greek = flow, or in Modern Greek, style) is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events. ...

This popular swing band took off and was listed number three in the country in a popularity poll by Down Beat Magazine in 1940. This band recorded for the Decca label. The band was first pinned "Herman's Herd" in a Martin band instrument advertisement in the same magazine on April 1, 1941_{citation needed}. The transition of this band, to the extremely popular "First Herd" was gradually taking place in the early nineteen forties. "This band went through a number of changes of personnel, such as the inclusion in 1943 of Chubby Jackson and in 1944 of Neal Hefti, Ralph Burns, Flip Phillips, and Bill Harris."[2] Swing music, also known as swing jazz, is a form of jazz music that solidified as a distinctive style during the 1930s in the United States. ... Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to jazz. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ...

The First Herd 1944-1946

"At the end of 1944 [...] Woody signed a contract with Columbia records. He said later that he liked the sound the company's engineers got in Liederkrantz Hall in New York City [...]." [LOB 108] Liederkrantz Hall was a "former church and had a very high ceiling." [LOB 108] The Columbia contract coincided with a change in the band's repertoire. 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, Billy Bauer, Ralph Burns, Davey Tough and Flip Philips. [LOB 109] On February 26, 1945 in New York City, the Woody Herman band recorded "Caldonia". [Clancy 68] "Ralph [Burns] caught Louis Jordan [singing "Caldonia"] in an act and wrote the opening twelve bars and the eight bar tag." [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 Dizzy Gillespie solo, but were in fact originally written by Neal Hefti. [LOB 109] Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C.; d. ... William Count Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. ... Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... Musically, swing can be either: (written with small s), refers to swung notes, the rhythmic feeling evoked by swinging music, esp. ...

In 1946 the band won Downbeat, Metronome, Billboard and Esquire polls for best band, nominated by their peers in the big band business.[Clancy 90] Along with the high acclaim for their jazz and blues performances, classical composer Igor Stravinsky wrote Ebony Concerto for this band. Woody Herman said about the Concerto, "What we were doing then, the First Herd [...] were heavy, strong, jazz things, with lots of open brass and so forth [...]. [...] [Ebony Concerto is a] very delicate and a very sad piece." [Clancy 88] 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!'" [Clancy 89] Ebony Concerto opened March 25, 1946 at Carnegie Hall.[3] Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский, Igor Fëdorovič Stravinskij) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian composer, considered by many in both the West and his native land to be the most influential composer of 20th-century music. ...

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 problems with alcoholism and pill addiction. "[After Woody Herman broke up his band] Charlotte joined Alcoholics Anonymous. [...] Charlotte gave up even wine[...].[...] Woody said, laughing, 'I went to an AA meeting with Charlotte and my old band was sitting there.'" [LOB 147] Many critics cite December of 1946 as the actual date the big band area ended and eight other bands in addition to Herman's, called it quits. [LOB 147] 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

The Second Herd and Other Bands 1947-1987

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. [Clancy 120] "The 'Four Brothers' chart is based on the chord changes of 'Jeepers Creepers', and features the three-tenor, one-baritone saxophone section[...]." [Clancy 121] The order of the saxophone solos is Zoot Sims, Herbie Steward, Serge Chaloff and Stan Getz. [Clancy 121] Some of the notable musicians of this band were also Al Cohn, Gene Ammons, Lou Levy, Oscar Pettiford, Terry Gibbs, and Shelly Manne [4]. Among this band's hits were "Early Autumn," and "The Goof and I". Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Al Cohn (November 24, 1925–February 15, 1988) was an American jazz saxophonist and jazz arranger/composer. ... Eugene Jug Ammons (April 14, 1925 - August 6, 1974) was an American jazz tenor saxophone player, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons. ... Lou Levy (1928 – 2001) was a bop-based pianist who worked with many top jazz artists. ... Oscar Pettiford (Okmulgee, Oklahoma, 30 September 1922-Copenhagen, Denmark, 8 September 1960) was an American jazz bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop. ... Terry Gibbs (1924 - ) is an American jazz vibraphonist and band leader. ...

Herman's other bands include the Third Herd (1950-1956) and various editions of the New Thundering Herd (1959-1987). (All dates are from the Verve Music Group's website biography of Woody Herman.)[5] In the nineteen fifties, the Third Herd went on a successful European tour. [Clancy 192] He was known for hiring the best young musicians and using their arrangements. His band's book in the sixties consequently came to be heavily influenced by rock and roll. [Clancy 275] "In 1968 Woody started to use an electronic rhythm section with electric piano and bass, combined with the traditional big band instrumentation [...] producing the fusion of a rock beat with the timbre of horns." [Clancy 271] Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ...

A highlight of the nineteen seventies was the appearance of the Woody Herman orchestra with Frank Sinatra for his "Main Event" television special and "Main Event" recording for Reprise records. "On October 13 [1974] Frank and the Herd performed at Madison Square Garden in New York. The band backed Sinatra for a grouping of his chestnuts: 'It Was A Very Good Year', 'I've Got You Under My Skin', and 'My Way'." [Clancy 291] 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. [Clancy 299] By the 1980s, Herman had returned to straight forward jazz, dropping some of the newer rock and fusion approaches. [CTH 312-313] Circa 1980, Woody Herman signed a recording contract with Concord Records, now the Concord Music Group. [Wilson, 1981] On March 15, 1981, John S. Wilson wrote in The New York Times of one of Herman's first Concord recordings "Woody Herman Presents a Concord Jam, Vol. I": "[This recording] takes him back to the days before his high pressure First Herd of 1944 and 1945, to the more relaxed feeling of his original band of the late 1930's, 'the band that plays the blues [...]." The 1980s refers to the years of 1980 to 1989. ...

Last years

Herman continued to perform into the 1980s, after the death of his wife and his health declining, chiefly to pay back taxes caused by an incompetent manager in the 1960s. "[In the mid nineteen-sixties] the Internal Revenue Service sent Woody a letter ordering him to appear in person in its office. He arrived with Abe [Turchen]. [...] He was handed a tax bill for $750,000. With interest and penalties, the amount was $1.6 million." [LOB 272] With the 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 the Woody Herman bands from the nineteen forties to the nineteen eighties. [Wilson, 1985] The 1980s refers to the years of 1980 to 1989. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ...

Before his death in 1987, when Herman's health began to worsen, he delegated most of his duties to leader of the reed section, Frank Tiberi[6]. Tiberi leads the band in performances to this day[7] and said at the time of Herman's death "I wouldn't play anyone else's arrangements [...] We're going to remain with what [Woody Herman] was doing." [CTH 397] Woody Herman's funeral and "Requiem Mass, conducted by Monsignor George J. Parnassus, began at 10 am on the morning of November 2, 1987 at St. Victor's Catholic Church, in West Hollywood [California] [...]." [LOB 368] 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Frank Tiberi is the leader of the Woody Herman Orchestra. ...

After the death of Herman, Charles Mingus, and other jazz greats, ASCAP created a retirement fund in 1991 to which artists were given the opportunity to fund their latter years when they no longer were recording artists.<citation needed> Charles Mingus (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979), also known as Charlie Mingus, was an American jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and occasional pianist. ... The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is an organization known as a collecting society that protects intellectual property, ensuring that music which is broadcast, commercially recorded, or otherwise used for profit, pays a fee to compensate the creators of that music. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Concord Music Group's website mentions these awards won by the various Woody Herman orchestras: "Voted best swing band in 1945 Down Beat poll; Silver Award by critics in 1946 and 1947 Esquire polls; won Metronome poll, band division, 1946 and 1953; won NARAS Grammy Award for Encore as best big band jazz album of 1963; won NARAS Grammy Award for Giant Steps as best big band jazz album of 1973."[8] Woody Herman was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987[9]. The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording [1]. This award is distinct from the Grammy Hall of Fame Award, which honors specific recordings rather than individuals, and...

Works Cited

Clancy, William. Woody Herman: Chronicles of the Herds. Schirmer, New York, 1995.

Concord Music Group. n.d. "Woody Herman." February 5, 2007. http://concordmusicgroup.com/artists/bio/?id=1127

Lees, Gene. Leader of the Band: The Life of Woody Herman. Oxford University Press, New York, 1995

Wilson, John S. December 5, 1985. "Jazz: Woody Herman's Band." February 2, 2007. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E2DD163BF936A35751C1A963948260.

--- March 15, 1981. "Woody Herman: Jamming As Of Old". February 2, 2007. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E7DD1239F936A25750C0A967948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1.

Verve Music Group. n.d. "Woody Herman". February 4, 2007. http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/artist.aspx?ob=per&src=prd&aid=2841.

See also

• Big band
• Jazz band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from 1935 until the late 1940s. ... A jazz band (or jazz ensemble in western dialects of American English) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. ...

External links

• PBS - JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns
• Woody Herman Biography
• current Woody Herman band