Herd

Herd Trio: Helsinki, Finland, March 29, 2012

by Anthony Shaw
April 6, 2012

Herd TrioKoko Jazz Club Helsinki, FinlandMarch 29, 2012 With their emergence onto the Finnish scene in 2009 in the national competition for the Nordic Jazz Comets award (won that year by the Icelandic Ingemar Andersen Quartet) the Herd trio have been making waves in northern waters ever since. This gig, however, in the newly opened premises of the Koko Jazz Club--now across Helsinki's very short 'Long Bridge' and behind Hakaniemi Square--was their first in ...

Woody Herman: Thundering Herd, 1977

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 25, 2025

Last week, I heard from Peter Coppock, who came across a newly posted concert by Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd in 1977. As Peter rightly noted, “The late '70s Herds get overlooked. Woody is in a groovy mood here and using a cane because he had just survived a near fatal car accident. “I met him when I was 15 and studying trumpet. I told him it was my goal to someday play for him. Woody said, 'You better ...
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Perfection: Bill Harris Herd - Blackstrap (1952)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 6, 2024

There were New York big bands in the early 1950s and then there was the Bill Harris Herd in 1952—a pack of ex-Hermanites, or former members of Woody Herman's band. If you're hip to your New York studio guys, then the following personnel should blow your mind: Charles Frankhauser, Bernie Glow, Neal Hefti, Al Porcino and Nick Travis (tp); Bill Harris, Eddie Bert, Vern Friley and Bart Varsalona (tb); Sam Marowitz and Hal McKusick (as); George Berg and Pete Mondello ...
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Ralph Burns: Swingin' Herd

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 7, 2015

I'm on a bit of a Ralph Burns tear—listening to both the recordings I've owned for some time and grabbing those that I'm unearthing through a deep dive into his discography. What makes Burns special is that he could write beautifully for strings on one album and then tear your heart out with his charts for a big band date on the next. Case in point: Woody Herman's New Swingin' Herman Herd recorded in March 1960 for the Crown label. ...
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Weekend Extra: Woody Herman&Apos;S Second Herd

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
February 7, 2010

Browsing YouTube, I came across what must be among the rarest pieces of jazz film, a sequence of Woody Herman's Second Herd, the celebrated Four Brothers band. We hear Herman's vocal and a bit of Stan Getz's tenor saxophone on “Caldonia," then most of “Northwest Passage," both pieces holdovers from the First Herd destined to be staples in the Herman book for the rest of his life. Herman, Getz and Shorty Rogers play the trio section of “Northwest Passage," then ...
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Weekend Extra: Herman Before the Herd

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
December 28, 2009

Two year after he took over the Isham Jones band, Woody Herman had infused it with his personality and leadership. We see and hear evidence in this piece from a film short made in 1938. It may seem a quaint choice of material, but in the late thirties, King Oliver's “Doctor Jazz" was still a minor staple in the repertoires of groups small and large. This is the polished pre-Herd Herman enjoying a novelty piece that he had recorded for ...
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Phil Woods Releases the "Unheard Herd" on Jazzed Media

Source: All About Jazz
March 10, 2006

JAZZED MEDIA PRESENTS: Phil Woods Unheard Herd CD JM1013 UPC 78370726980-1 Suggested List Price $15.98

Phil Woods & The Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra perform the great Woody Herman Band Second Herd Bebop charts from the late 1940's. The Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of trumpeter Ron Stout, is joined by alto sax legend Phil Woods and a host of LA's greatest jazz musicians including Ross Tompkins, Carl Saunders, Scott Whitfield, Andy Martin, ...
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