Woody Herman

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Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987), better known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and Big band leader. During his lifetime, he led some of the most exciting big bands of the twentieth century. His bands changed styles and approaches to jazz but still managed to keep their musical integrity.

Herman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a child he worked as a singer in vaudeville, then became a professional saxophone player at age 15. When Isham Jones’s band, of which Herman had been a member, broke up in 1936, he formed his own band, the Woody Herman Orchestra, with some of his band mates. This band became known for its orchestrations of the blues and was sometimes billed as “The Band That Plays The Blues”.

On April 12, 1939 Woody Herman recorded his greatest commercial and mega popular hit record “Woodchoppers’ Ball”, featuring Woody on clarinet, Neal Ried on trombone, Saxie Mansfield on Sax, Steady Nelson on trumpet and Hy White on guitar. Other big early hits were “Blue Flame,” “Dupree Blues”, “Blues Upstairs and Downstairs” and “Blues in the Night” with Joe Bishop on flugelhorn, Tommy Linehans on piano, Cappy Lewis on trumpet, and the strong rhythm team of Walt Yoder and Frankie Carlson.

Tagged as:

jazz, swing, big band, clarinet, saxophone
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Keep On Keepin' On
Woody Herman
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Thundering Herd
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Story
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Blue Flame
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Top Tracks

1	Woodchopper's Ball full track	188
2	Caldonia full track	138
3	Four Others full track	124
4	Early Autumn full track	98
5	Four Brothers full track	91
6	Apple Honey full track	87
7	Northwest Passage full track	56
8	At The Woodchopper's Ball full track	53
9	The Good Earth full track	49
10	Mood Indigo full track	46
11	Blue Flame full track	37
12	Goosey Gander full track	33
13	Bijou full track	28
13	Don't Get Around Much Anymore full track	28
15	Blowin' Up a Storm full track	27

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duomosik wrote:
last month

If you like jazz clarinet, you should probably check out our new album JOHANN! Full length previews and a free download! Bon swing!

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zrsullivan wrote:
May 2008

Ah, when that alto comes in on 'Early Autumn'!

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falsemuzzle wrote:
March 2008

sorry dude....didn't join until '08 :-P he is awesome!

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LoweSox wrote:
February 2008

Woodchopper's Ball is life-defining. If I could swing to this, I could die happy.

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prettyghost wrote:
December 2007

i agree with zrsullivan, wholeheartedly!

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zrsullivan wrote:
December 2007

his mid-40's work is fantastically underrated. & you all should be ashamed of yourselves, forcing me to comment first.

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Mike_Bardius created the Portuguese wiki page for Woody Herman. September 2008