the Woody Herman Exclusive

At the end of 1949, Herman disbanded the Herd, formed another, but die to the decline of the big - band market, he was forced to follow a more conservative line. The Third Herd is a blurred category, covering a multitude of personnel changes, though the arrangements remained the province of Burns and Giuffre. 1959 saw the reassembly of many of the Herman stalwarts, Zoot Sims, Conte Candoli, Bill Perkins, Urbie Green, for the Monterey Jazz Festival. With Mel Lewis on drums, the band tears into Four Brothers (Live At Monterey) while Monterey Apple Tree is the classic Apple Honey. An album from 1963, (Live At The Basin Street West) reveals a vigorous talent; high - note specialist, trumpeter Bill Chase, lifting the trumpet section for the exciting Caldonia, the fast, driving tenorist Sal Nistico on El Toro Grande, or trombonist Phil Wilson on Body & Soul. With Nat Pierce writing the arrangements, this version of the Herd was a fine mixture of tradition and innovation. An album from the late '60s (Jazz Hoot) showcases the flaring trumpet section of Bill Chase, Dusko Goykovitch, Don Rader, Bob Shew and Gerald Lamy, plus solos by Nistico.

Woody Herman's own playing has remained consistently excellent over the decades, still indebted to frank Trumbauer, The Glissando Kid, for his alto sound, and still apposite on the unfashionable clarinet. In later years, the Herd's Sax section hews close to Coltrane and the electric piano has appeared but the identity of the band seems indestructible.

Recordings for Concord in the mid - '80s show that the Herman Big Band can still recreate history when reworking classics like Four Brothers and Perdido in the company of Sal Nistico, Flip Phillips and Al Cohn (World Class) .

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