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Woody Herman
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After early experience in Chicago with the bands led by Tom Gerun and Harry Sosnik, Woody Herman toured with Gus Arnheim. In 1934, he joined Isham Jones, and when Jones's group disbanded in 1936 Herman used its leading sidemen as the nucleus for his own orchestra. 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 (by the mid-1940s, under the name Herman's Herd, it was internationally famous for the force and originality of its music. Herman reformed the band in 1947, and the distinctive feature of the Second Herd was the group of saxophonists (three tenor and one baritone) who came to be known as the Four Brothers; among the musicians who played in the section were Serge Chaloff, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Gene Ammons. After the demise of the Second Herd in 1949, Herman continued to lead bands; these were perhaps less creative, but their consistently high level of musicianship assured his continuing reputation
Chuck Mangione: Friend For Lovers
by Chris M. Slawecki
This article first appeared on All About Jazz in September 2000. Chuck Mangione is best known as the trumpet player and composer of that ubiquitous tune, which taught millions worldwide that music “Feels So Good." But Chuck Mangione boasts serious Jazz chops: Before flying solo, he cut his teeth in the Woody ...
Russ Spiegel: Nitty Gritty
by Jack Bowers
The phrase Nitty Gritty has a number of meanings, among the most oft-repeated of which are “mundane," “ordinary" and “commonplace." Guitarist Russ Spiegel surely had another definition in mind when naming his seventh album, whose aftermath brings to mind several graphic expressions. But mundane, ordinary and commonplace are not among them. Instead, words ...
Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band: Treasury, Volume 2
by Jack Bowers
Like any other handiwork you can name, contemporary jazz did not emerge from a vacuum. It sprang forth from a variety of sources, including but not limited to bebop, cool jazz, swing, trad jazz (Dixieland), blues, stride and perhaps the granddaddy of them all, ragtime. Yes, ragtime. Before there was King Oliver or Louis Armstrong, Duke ...
The Jazz West Coast Style of Music: An Introduction
by Steven Cerra
I know it's hard to imagine with today's governmental overreach telling people what cars to drive, what bathrooms to use, and the highest personal, property and commercial taxes of any state in the nation, but California in the 1950s was a place of opportunities and possibilities. It's why my dad relocated the family from ...
Nick Brignola: Between A Rock And The Jazz Place, Part 2
by Rob Rosenblum
Part 1 | Part 2 This interview was originally published in 1969 in an Albany, New York area arts publication called Transition. It documents a time when saxophonist Nick Brignola was in the process of trying to break out of the confines of bebop and incorporate some of the elements of fusion that was ...
The Master of Drums: Gene Krupa and the Music He Gave The World
by Richard J Salvucci
The Master of Drums Elizabeth J Rosenthal 320 Pages ISBN: 978-0-8065-4320 Kensington Publishing Company 2025 In the interests of full disclosure, I spent an extended period with Gene Krupa as an adolescent. Relatives were friends of Krupa's. All the nice things Elizabeth J. Rosenthal says about Krupa as a ...
Jim Doherty: Jim Doherty's Spondance
by Ian Patterson
Jim Doherty never lacked ambition, but a suite for jazz ballet or even jazz dance was always going to be a difficult sell in '80s Ireland. All was not lost for the pianist and composer, however. A few strings pulled here and there saw Doherty and his long- term collaborator, Louis Stewart decamp to Los Angeles, ...
Woody Herman: Thundering Herd, 1977
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 ...
The Len Pierro Jazz Orchestra: As I Was Saying
by Jack Bowers
Remember the good old days before high-tech hardware and software seized control and the country's leading big bands were recorded in a studio or in concert employing a wide dynamic range with no overdubs or splices to enhance the performance? Composer and arranger Len Pierro does, which is why he planned As I Was Saying, the ...
