Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd: Blues in the Night

There were at least two constants about a Herman band. First, the players were top flight, young and getting sensational training and learning musical (if not temperance) discipline from Herman. The people who passed through Herman's organization read like a Who's Who of modern jazz. Second, Herman never let himself get into a musical rut. As tastes changed with the times, so did he. Once known as the band that "played the blues", he moved on to play bop and even some modern music with a rock foundation like "Variations on a Scene". But irrespective of the kind of music, the arrangements and their playing were exact.

The cluster of musicians Woody brought to Clearwater met his high standards. Alan Broadbent was doing most of the arrangements. Sal Nistico was showing off his exceptional sax playing on several tunes including a ranting, high voltage solo in "Keep on Keepin' on". Some of the cuts featured the upper stratosphere trumpeting of Buddy Powers. Drummer Ed Soph was the driving rhythmic force with help from Bill Terry's bass. Herman continued to sing with his laconic, conversational manner on such tunes as "Pennies from Heaven" and "I've Got the World on a String". But he saves his best vocalizing for "Blues in the Night" that was in the band book forever. Arranged by Broadbent, it gets a thorough 14 minute workout by the members of the band in solo and ensemble.

There's some humor as well. Woody tells a tale about his stint at the Metropole Bar in New York. He explained how a person would come in off the street perfectly sober and within 40 minutes was leaving the place completely soused praising the band. Herman goes on to describe one of the more salty characters, Sidewalk Stanley. He then pays tribute to Sidewalk with a bouncy, boozy "Sidewalk Stanley".

Hitchcock Media should get a prize for discovering this Herman performance and making it available.

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