Look Who it Was Random video

Woody Herman's Orch. - Stars Fell On Alabama, 1941

2,913 views · Published 18 March 2015 · 3:11 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2015 · Music

Watch on YouTube

Woody HERMAN & His Orchestra – Stars Fell On Alabama (Parish & Perkins) Vocalists: Woody Herman and the Blue Moods, Columbia 1941 (USA; UK pressing)

NOTE: Woody HERMAN was an American bandleader, a swing clarinetist and altoist, a good soprano saxophonist, and a spirited blues vocalist. He was called “the most successful among the singing bandleaders”. Perhaps no other bandleader in the history of jazz had the staying power of Woody Herman and no other band reflected what was artistically valid at the given moment: from Dixieland to Swing, Bebop to Fusion. Under his baton, The Band That Played The Blues was also the band that played Stravinsky. Born in Milwaukee in 1913 as Woodrow Charles Thomas HERMAN to the family of the “frustrated singer”, as he called his father, Woody Herman was a prodigy child and early in his life he tap danced and sung in local clubs and he toured with the shows. In age of 15, he played the saxophone and clarinet on the level of technical efficiency that enabled him to play in the orchestra. He had his a series of employments in various dance ands, including renowned orchestras led by Gus Arnheim, Harry Sosnick , Tom Gerun - where he recorded his first vocals: "Lonesome Me" and "Sentimental Gentleman From Georgia" (1932) – or Isham Jones, where he was appointed to direct a small jazz group within the larger dance orchestra (Isham Jones Juniors, 1936). 
A year later, a group of musicians in the orchestra chose Herman as their leader, they called themselves The Band That Plays The Blues and started performing on their own, exhibiting a very anticommercial attitude and gradually gaining popularity. The enormous success of Woody Herman’s up-tempo blues tune  "At The Woodchopper's Ball" (1939) – performed by numerous artists and considered a jazz standard now – enforced their artistic stand.  In 1944, Herman reorganized the team, creating his “First Herd” - which recorded a number of albums, not only excellent in terms of music, but also perfectly sellers (“Apple Honey", "Caldonia", "Northwest Passage", "Goosey Gander", "Bijou", "Your Father's Moustache", "Blowin 'Up in The Storm "). In 1946 they played with great success a concert at Carnegie Hall. A year later - due to financial difficulties – Herman disbanded the orchestra and fomed the Second Herd, which went down in the history of jazz as "The Four Brothers Band". The team presented a modern approach to jazz and music performed bearing features of bebop. The success of the team worked primarily saxophone section (the tream including such celebrities as Sam Marowitz, Stan Getz and Zoot Sims). Together they sounded modern – yet leaving enough space for a typical swing sounds - and had no rival among the other big bands of the time. Besides recording of "Four Brothers" band had many other hit numbers (eg. "And Peachy Keen", "The Goof And I" and "Early Autumn"). Unfortunately, despite the successes, big band did not climb to the heights of popularity, perhaps being too much ahead of his time. Herman once again disbanded the group, almost immediately creating a new one Third Herd (with eg. Red Rodney, Urbi Green, Kai Winding, Richie Kamuca, Bill Perkins, Monty Budwig and Jake Hanna). A particularly important role to play in this period had Nat Pierce, who not only played the piano, but also wrote many good arrangements. Unfortunately, it was a dull time for big bands, the musicians of the orchestra ironically called themselves the "un-Herd" (a play on words: a team, which has nobody to be heard by). At the end of the decade the band was successful thanks to the talents of musicians, but the crisis of a jazz orchestra confronted with the dawn of the rock music was already obvious. In the 60s and 70s Herman continued creating-and re-creating his “Herds” (Thundering Herd, Swinging Herd etc.) with many excellent musicians he employed  (e.g. Pierce, Hanna, Bill Chase, Nick and Sal Nistico Brignole, Carmen Leggio, Cecil Payne). At the end of the 60s Herman experimented with the jazz-rock arrangements, introducing several tracks in this style. In 1976, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first concert at Carnegie Hall, he played again in this great concert hall. However, in the 1980s, Herman discovered that his manager for many years was cheating on the taxes and the Jazz veteran proved to be bankrupt. Urged by his debts to further performances, he led the orchestra, holding humiliating tours around the world, albeit full of successes, but also revealing his mediocre physical condition. Yet, nobody ever said a bad word about Herman, the audience always admired him, respected and loved.

More from this channel