in 1947
Nat King Cole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Early life
Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17, 1919. Coles had three brothers: Eddie, Ike, and Freddy, and a half-sister, Joyce Coles. Ike and Freddy would later pursue careers in music as well. When Cole was four years old, he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where his father, Edward Coles, became a Baptist minister. Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. His first performance was of "Yes! We Have No Bananas" at age four. He began formal lessons at 12, eventually learning not only jazz and gospel music, but also Western classical music, performing, as he said, "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff".
The family lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Cole would sneak out of the house and hang around outside the clubs, listening to artists such as Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, and Jimmie Noone. He participated in Walter Dyett's renowned music program at DuSable High School.
Career
Inspired by the performances of Earl Hines, Cole began his performing career in the mid-1930s while still a teenager, adopting the name "Nat Cole". His older brother, Eddie, a bass player, soon joined Cole's band, and they made their first recording in 1936 under Eddie's name. They also were regular performers at clubs. Cole, in fact, acquired his nickname, "King", performing at one jazz club, a nickname presumably reinforced by the otherwise unrelated nursery rhyme about Old King Cole. He also was a pianist in a national tour of Broadway theatrelegend Eubie Blake's revue, "Shuffle Along". When it suddenly failed in Long Beach, California, Cole decided to remain there. He would later return to Chicago in triumph to play such venues as the famed Edgewater Beach Hotel.
Los Angeles and the King Cole Trio
Cole and two other musicians formed the "King Cole Swingers" in Long Beach and played in a number of local bars before getting a gig on the Long Beach Pike for US$90 ($1,514 today) per week. The trio consisted of Cole on piano, Oscar Moore on guitar, and Wesley Prince on double bass. The trio played in Failsworth throughout the late 1930s and recorded many radio transcriptions. Cole was not only pianist but leader of the combo as well.
Radio was important to the King Cole Trio's rise in popularity. Their first broadcast was with NBC's Blue Network in 1938. It was followed by appearances on NBC's Swing Soiree. In the 1940s, the trio appeared on the Old Gold, Chesterfield Supper Club and Kraft Music Hall radio shows.
Legend was that Cole's singing career did not start until a drunken barroom patron demanded that he sing "Sweet Lorraine". Cole, in fact, has gone on record saying that the fabricated story "sounded good, so I just let it ride." Cole frequently sang in between instrumental numbers. Noticing that people started to request more vocal numbers, he obliged. Yet the story of the insistent customer is not without some truth. There was a customer who requested a certain song one night, but it was a song that Cole did not know, so instead he sang "Sweet Lorraine". The trio was tipped 15 cents for the performance, a nickel apiece (Nat King Cole: An Intimate Biography, Maria Cole with Louie Robinson, 1971).
Success
Cole's first mainstream vocal hit was his 1943 recording of one of his compositions, "Straighten Up and Fly Right", based on a black folk tale that his father had used as a theme for a sermon. Johnny Mercer invited him to record it for his fledgling Capitol Records label. It sold over 500,000 copies, proving that folk-based material could appeal to a wide audience. Although Cole would never be considered a rocker, the song can be seen as anticipating the first rock and roll records. Indeed, Bo Diddley, who performed similar transformations of folk material, counted Cole as an influence.
In 1946, the Cole trio paid to have their own 15-minute radio program on the air. It was called, "King Cole Trio Time." It became the first radio program sponsored by a black performing artist. During those years, the trio recorded many "transcription" recordings, which were recordings made in the radio studio for the broadcast. Later they were used for commercial records.
Beginning in the late 1940s, Cole began recording and performing pop-oriented material for mainstream audiences, in which he was often accompanied by a string orchestra. His stature as a popular icon was cemented during this period by hits such as "The Christmas Song" (Cole recorded that tune four times: on June 14, 1946, as a pure Trio recording, on August 19, 1946, with an added string section, on August 24, 1953, and in 1961 for the double album The Nat King Cole Story; this final version, recorded in stereo, is the one most often heard today), "Nature Boy" (1948), "Mona Lisa" (1950), "Too Young" (the #1 song in 1951),[7] and his signature tune "Unforgettable" (1951) (Gainer 1). While this shift to pop music led some jazz critics and fans to accuse Cole of selling out, he never totally abandoned his jazz roots; as late as 1956, for instance, he recorded an all-jazz album After Midnight. Cole had one of his last big hits in 1963, two years before his death, with the classic "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer", which reached #6 on the Pop chart.
Television
On November 5, 1956, The Nat King Cole Show debuted on NBC. The variety program was the first of its kind hosted by an African-American, which created controversy at the time. Beginning as a 15-minute pops show on Monday night, the program was expanded to a half hour in July 1957. Despite the efforts of NBC, as well as many of Cole's industry colleagues—many of whom, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Frankie Laine,Mel Tormé, Peggy Lee, Eartha Kitt, and backing vocal group The Cheerleaders worked for industry scale (or even for no pay) in order to help the show save money—The Nat King Cole Show was ultimately done in by lack of a national sponsorship. Companies such as Rheingold Beer assumed regional sponsorship of the show, but a national sponsor never appeared.
The last episode of The Nat King Cole Show aired December 17, 1957. Cole had survived for over a year, and it was he, not NBC, who ultimately decided to pull the plug on the show.[9]Commenting on the lack of sponsorship his show received, Cole quipped shortly after its demise, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."
Later career
Throughout the 1950s, Cole continued to rack up successive hits, selling in millions throughout the world, including "Smile", "Pretend", "A Blossom Fell", and "If I May". His pop hits were collaborations with well-known arrangers and conductors of the day, including Nelson Riddle,[5] Gordon Jenkins, and Ralph Carmichael. Riddle arranged several of Cole's 1950s albums, including his first 10-inch long-play album, his 1953 Nat King Cole Sings For Two In Love. In 1955, his single "Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup" reached #7 on the Billboard chart. Jenkins arranged Love Is the Thing, which hit #1 on the album charts in April 1957.
In 1958, Cole went to Havana, Cuba to record Cole Español, an album sung entirely in Spanish. The album was so popular in Latin America, as well as in the USA, that two others of the same variety followed: A Mis Amigos (sung in Spanish and Portuguese) in 1959 and More Cole Español in 1962. A Mis Amigos contains the Venezuelan hit "Ansiedad," whose lyrics Cole had learned while performing in Caracas in 1958. Cole learned songs in languages other than English by rote.
After the change in musical tastes during the late 1950s, Cole's ballad singing did not sell well with younger listeners, despite a successful stab at rock n' roll with "Send For Me" (peaked at #6 pop). Along with his contemporaries Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett, Cole found that the pop singles chart had been almost entirely taken over by youth-oriented acts. In 1960, Nat's longtime collaborator Nelson Riddle left Capitol Records for Frank Sinatra's newly formed Reprise Records label. Riddle and Cole recorded one final hit album, Wild Is Love, based on lyrics by Ray Rasch and Dotty Wayne. Cole later retooled the concept album into an Off-Broadway show, "I'm With You."
Cole did manage to record some hit singles during the 1960s, including in 1961 "Let There Be Love" with George Shearing, the country-flavored hit "Ramblin' Rose" in August 1962, "Dear Lonely Hearts", "That Sunday, That Summer" and "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days Of Summer" (his final hit, reaching #6 pop).
Cole performed in many short films, sitcoms, and television shows and played W. C. Handy in the film St. Louis Blues (1958). He also appeared in The Nat King Cole Story, China Gate, and The Blue Gardenia (1953). In January 1964, Cole made one of his final television appearances on The Jack Benny Program. Cole was introduced as “the best friend a song ever had," and sang “When I Fall in Love." It was one of Cole's last performances. Cat Ballou (1965), his final film, was released several months after his death.
Personal life
Around the time Cole launched his singing career, he entered into Freemasonry, being raised in January 1944 in the Thomas Waller Lodge No. 49 in California, the lodge being named after fellow Prince Hall mason and jazz musician Fats Waller.[12]
Marriage and children
Cole's first marriage, to Nadine Robinson, ended in 1948. On March 28, 1948 (Easter Sunday), just six days after his divorce became final, Cole married singer Maria Hawkins Ellington(although Maria had sung with Duke Ellington's band, she was not related to Duke Ellington). The Coles were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.They had five children: Natalie (born 1950) (Watts 1), who herself would go on to have a successful career as a singer; adopted daughter Carole (1944–2009, the daughter of Maria's sister), who died of lung cancer at 64; adopted son Nat Kelly Cole (1959–1995), who died of AIDS at 36;[13] and twin daughters Casey and Timolin (born 1961).
Cole had affairs throughout his marriages. By the time he developed lung cancer, he was estranged from his wife Maria and living with actress Gunilla Hutton, best known as the second Billie Jo Bradley on Petticoat Junction (1965–1966) and also notable as a regular cast member (Nurse Goodbody) on Hee Haw. But Cole was with Maria during his illness, and she stayed with him until his death. In an interview, Maria expressed no lingering resentment over his affairs. Instead, she emphasized his musical legacy and the class he exhibited in all other aspects of his life.[14]
Racism
n August 1948, Cole purchased a house from Col. Harry Gantz, the former husband of Lois Weber, in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Ku Klux Klan, still active in Los Angeles well into the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn. Members of the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any undesirables moving in. Cole retorted, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain."[15]
Cole fought racism all his life and rarely performed in segregated venues. In 1956, he was assaulted on stage during a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, with the Ted Heath Band (while singing the song "Little Girl"), by three members of the North Alabama Citizens Council (a group led by Education of Little Tree author Asa "Forrest" Carter, himself not among the attackers), who apparently were attempting to kidnap him (Ruuth 14). The three male attackers ran down the aisles of the auditorium towards Cole and his band. Although local law enforcement quickly ended the invasion of the stage, the ensuing melée toppled Cole from his piano bench and injured his back. Cole did not finish the concert and never again performed in the South. A fourth member of the group who had participated in the plot was later arrested in connection with the act. All were later tried and convicted for their roles in the crime.[16]
In 1956, he was contracted to perform in Cuba and wanted to stay at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, but was not allowed to because it operated a color bar. Cole honored his contract, and the concert at the Tropicana was a huge success. The following year, he returned to Cuba for another concert, singing many songs in Spanish. There is now a tribute to him in the form of a bust and a jukebox in the Hotel Nacional.[17]
After his attack in Birmingham, Cole stated "I can't understand it ... I have not taken part in any protests. Nor have I joined an organization fighting segregation. Why should they attack me?" A native of Alabama, Cole seemed eager to assure southern whites that he would not challenge the customs and traditions of the region. A few would keep the protests going for a while, he claimed, but "I'd just like to forget about the whole thing." Cole had no intention of altering his practice of playing to segregated audiences in the South. He did not condone the practice but was not a politician and believed "I can't change the situation in a day." African-American communities responded to Nat King Cole's self-professed political indifference with an immediate, harsh, and virtually unanimous rejection, unaffected by his revelations that he had contributed money to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and had sued several northern hotels that had hired but refused to serve him. Thurgood Marshall, chief legal counsel of the NAACP, reportedly suggested that since he was an Uncle Tom, Cole ought to perform with a banjo. Roy Wilkins, the executive secretary of the organization, challenged Cole in a telegram: "You have not been a crusader or engaged in an effort to change the customs or laws of the South. That responsibility, newspapers quote you as saying, you leave to the other guys. That attack upon you clearly indicates that organized bigotry makes no distinction between those who do not actively challenge racial discrimination and those who do. This is a fight which none of us can escape. We invite you to join us in a crusade against racism." [18]
Cole's appearances before all-white audiences, the Chicago Defender charged, were "an insult to his race". As boycotts of his records and shows were organized, the Amsterdam Newsclaimed that "thousands of Harlem blacks who have worshiped at the shrine of singer Nat King Cole turned their backs on him this week as the noted crooner turned his back on the NAACP and said that he will continue to play to Jim Crow audiences." To play "Uncle Nat's" discs, wrote a commentator in The American Negro, "would be supporting his 'traitor' ideas and narrow way of thinking". Deeply hurt by the criticism of the black press, Cole was also suitably chastened. Emphasizing his opposition to racial segregation "in any form", he agreed to join other entertainers in boycotting segregated venues. He quickly and conspicuously paid $500 to become a life member of the Detroit branch of the NAACP. Until his death in 1965, Cole was an active and visible participant in the civil rights movement, playing an important role in planning the March on Washington in 1963.[18][19]
Politics
Cole sang at the 1956 Republican National Convention in the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California, on August 23, 1956. There, his "singing of 'That's All There Is To That' was greeted with applause."[20] He was also present at the Democratic National Convention in 1960 to throw his support behind Senator John F. Kennedy. Cole was also among the dozens of entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Kennedy Inaugural gala in 1961. Cole frequently consulted with President Kennedy (and later President Lyndon B. Johnson) on civil rights.
Death
Cole was a heavy smoker throughout his life and rarely seen without a cigarette in his hand. He was a smoker of Kool menthol cigarettes, believing that smoking up to three packs a day gave his voice its rich sound. (Cole would smoke several cigarettes in rapid succession before a recording.) After an operation for stomach ulcers in 1953, he had been advised to stop smoking but did not do so. In December 1964, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He underwent cobalt and radiation therapy and was initially given a positive prognosis. On January 25, he underwent surgery to remove his left lung. Despite medical treatments, he died on February 15, 1965, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica,California.[21]
Cole's funeral was held on February 18 at St. James Episcopal Church on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. His remains were interred inside Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.[22]
Posthumous releases
Cole's last album, L-O-V-E, was recorded in early December 1964—just a few days before he entered the hospital for cancer treatment—and was released just prior to his death. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Albums chart in the spring of 1965. A "Best Of" album went gold in 1968. His 1957 recording of "When I Fall In Love" reached #4 in the UK charts in 1987.
In 1983, an archivist for EMI Electrola Records, EMI (Capitol's parent company) Records' subsidiary in Germany, discovered some songs Cole had recorded but that had never been released, including one in Japanese and another in Spanish ("Tu Eres Tan Amable"). Capitol released them later that year as the LP Unreleased.
In 1991, Mosaic Records released "The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio," an 18-compact-disc set consisting of 349 songs. (This special compilation also was available as a 27-LP set.)
In the summer of 1991, Natalie Cole and her father had a hit when Natalie's own newly recorded voice track was mixed with her father's 1961 rendition of "Unforgettable" into a new duet version as part of a tribute album to her father's music. The song and album of the same name won seven Grammy awards in 1992.
Legacy
Cole was inducted into both the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1990, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1997 was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
An official United States postage stamp featuring Cole's likeness was issued in 1994.[2]
In 2000, Cole was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the major influences on early rock and roll.[2]
Discography
Main article: Nat King Cole discography
Selected filmography
|
Year |
Title |
Role |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1941 |
Pianist in 'El Rancho' |
Uncredited |
|
|
1943 |
Pistol Packin' Mama |
Leader - The King Cole Trio |
Uncredited |
|
1943 |
Here Comes Elmer |
Himself |
|
|
1944 |
Canteen Pianist |
Uncredited |
|
|
1944 |
King Cole Trio |
|
|
|
1944 |
Leader, The King Cole Trio |
Uncredited |
|
|
1944 |
See My Lawyer |
Specialty act |
Credited as King Cole Trio |
|
1944 |
Is You Is, or Is You Ain't My Baby? |
Himself |
Short subject |
|
1946 |
Performer in The King Cole Trio |
|
|
|
1948 |
Himself |
Credited as King Cole Trio |
|
|
1949 |
Make Believe Ballroom |
Himself |
Credited as King Cole Trio |
|
1950 |
King Cole Trio & Benny Carter Orchestra |
Himself |
Short subject |
|
1952 |
Nat 'King' Cole and Joe Adams Orchestra |
Himself |
Short subject |
|
1953 |
Himself |
|
|
|
1953 |
Himself |
|
|
|
1953 |
Nat 'King' Cole and Russ Morgan and His Orchestra |
Himself |
Short subject |
|
1955 |
Singer (Voice) |
|
|
|
1955 |
Himself |
Documentary |
|
|
1955 |
Himself |
|
|
|
1955 |
The Nat 'King' Cole Musical Story |
Himself |
|
|
1956 |
Nightclub Vocalist |
|
|
|
1956 |
Himself |
|
|
|
1957 |
Danny Rice |
|
|
|
1957 |
Goldie |
|
|
|
1958 |
W.C. Handy |
|
|
|
1959 |
Night of the Quarter Moon |
Cy Robbin |
Alternative title: The Color of Her Skin |
|
1960 |
Schlager-Raketen |
Sänger, Himself |
|
|
1965 |
Shouter |
Released posthumously |
|
Year |
Title |
Role |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1949 |
Himself |
14 episodes |
|
|
1951-1952 |
Himself |
3 episodes |
|
|
1952-1955 |
Himself |
2 episodes |
|
|
1953 |
Himself |
Episode #2.20 |
|
|
1953-1961 |
Himself - Mystery Guest |
2 episodes |
|
|
1954-1955 |
Himself |
4 episodes |
|
|
1955 |
Himself |
2 episodes |
|
|
1956-1957 |
Host |
42 episodes |
|
|
1957-1960 |
Himself |
2 episodes |
|
|
1958 |
The Patti Page Oldsmobile Show |
Himself |
Episode #1.5 |
|
1959 |
The Perry Como Show |
Himself |
Episode: January 17, 1959 |
|
1959 |
The George Gobel Show |
Himself |
Episode #5.10 |
|
1960 |
Himself |
Episode #5.21 |
|
|
1960 |
Himself |
Episode: "Nat King Cole" |
|
|
1961-1964 |
Himself |
4 episodes |
|
|
1962-1964 |
The Jack Paar Program |
Himself |
4 episodes |
|
1963 |
An Evening with Nat King Cole |
Himself |
BBC Television special |
|
1963 |
Himself |
Episode #1.14 |
|
|
1964 |
Nat |
Episode: "Nat King Cole, Guest" |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Woody Herman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Woodrow Charles "Woody" Herman (May
16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist,
alto and soprano saxophonist,singer,
and big
band leader.
Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one
of the most popular of the 1930s and 1940s bandleaders.
His bands often played music that was experimental for its
time. He was a featured halftime
performer for Super
Bowl VII.
Early life and career
Herman was born Woodrow Charles Thomas Herrman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 16, 1913. His parents were Otto and Myrtle Herrman. His father had a deep love for show business and this influenced Woody Herman at an early age. As a child he worked as a singer and tap-dancer in Vaudeville, then started to play the clarinet and saxophone by age 12.[6] In 1931, he met Charlotte Neste, an aspiring actress; they married on September 27, 1936. Woody Herman joined the Tom Gerun band and his first recorded vocals were "Lonesome Me" and "My Heart's At Ease".[9] Herman also performed with the Harry Sosnick orchestra, Gus Arnheim and Isham Jones. Isham Jones wrote many popular songs, including "It Had To Be You" and at some point was tiring of the demands of leading a band. Jones wanted to live off the residuals of his songs; Woody Herman saw the chance to lead his former band, and eventually acquired the remains of the orchestra after Jones' retirement.
The Band That Plays The Blues and the First Herd 1936-1946
Woody Herman's first band became known for its orchestrations of the blues and was sometimes billed as "The Band That Plays The Blues". This band recorded for the Decca label, at first serving as a cover band, doing songs by other Decca artists.[13] The first song recorded was "Wintertime Blues" on November 6, 1936. In January 1937, George T. Simon closed a review of the band with the words: "This Herman outfit bears watching; not only because it's fun listening to in its present stages, but also because its bound to reach even greater stages."[14] After two and a half years on the label, the band had its first hit, "Woodchopper's Ball" recorded in 1939.[15] Woody Herman remembered that "Woodchopper's Ball" started out slowly at first. "[I]t was really a sleeper. But Decca kept re-releasing it, and over a period of three or four years it became a hit. Eventually it sold more than five million copies—the biggest hit I ever had."[16] Other hits for the band include "The Golden Wedding" and "Blue Prelude".[17] Musicians and arrangers that stand out include Cappy Lewis on trumpet and Dean Kincaide, a noted big band arranger.[17]
In jazz, swing was gradually being replaced by bebop. Dizzy Gillespie, a trumpeter and one of the originators of bop, wrote three arrangements for Woody Herman, "Woody'n You", "Swing Shift" and "Down Under". These were arranged in 1942.[18] "Woody'n You" was not used at the time. "Down Under" was recorded November 8, 1943. The fact that Herman commissioned Dizzy Gillespie to write arrangements for the band and that Herman hired Ralph Burns as a staff arranger, heralded a change in the style of music the band was playing.[19]
In February 1945, the band started a contract with Columbia Records.[20] Herman liked what drew many artists to Columbia, Liederkrantz Hall, at the time the best recording venue in New York City. The first side Herman recorded was "Laura", the theme song of the 1944 movie of the same name.[21] Herman's version was so successful that it made Columbia hold from release the arrangement that Harry James had recorded days earlier.[22] The Columbia contract coincided with a change in the band's repertoire. The 1944 group, which he called the First Herd, was famous for its progressive jazz. The First Herd's music was heavily influenced by Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Its lively, swinging arrangements, combining bop themes withswing rhythm parts, were greatly admired. As of February 1945 the personnel included Bill Harris, Sonny Berman, Pete Candoli, Billy Bauer (later replaced by Chuck Wayne), Ralph Burns,Davey Tough and Flip Phillips.[23] On February 26, 1945 in New York City, the Woody Herman band recorded "Caldonia".[24]
Neal Hefti and Ralph Burns collaborated on the arrangement of "Caldonia" that the Herman band used.[25] "Ralph caught Louis Jordan [singing "Caldonia"] in an act and wrote the opening twelve bars and the eight bar tag."[24] "But the most amazing thing on the record was a soaring eight bar passage by trumpets near the end." These eight measures have wrongly been attributed to a Dizzy Gillespie solo, but were in fact originally written by Neal Hefti.[23] George T. Simon compares Neal Hefti with Dizzy Gillespie in a 1944 review for Metronome magazine saying, "Like Dizzy [...], Hefti has an abundance of good ideas, with which he has aided Ralph Burns immensely [...][.]"
In 1946 the band won Down Beat, Metronome, Billboard and Esquire polls for best band, nominated by their peers in the big band business.[27] Along with the high acclaim for their jazz and blues performances, classical composer Igor Stravinsky wrote the Ebony Concerto, one in a series of compositions commissioned by Woody with solo clarinet, for this band. Woody Herman recorded this work in the Belock Recording Studio in Bayside New York.
Throughout the history of jazz, there have always been musicians who sought to combine it with classical music.[29] Ebony Concerto is one in a long line of music from the twenties to the present day that seeks to do this. Woody Herman said about the Concerto: "[The Ebony Concerto is a] very delicate and a very sad piece."[30] Stravinsky felt that the jazz musicians would have a hard time with the various time signatures. Saxophonist Flip Philips said, "During the rehearsal [...] there was a passage I had to play there and I was playing it soft, and Stravinsky said 'Play it, here I am!' and I blew it louder and he threw me a kiss!"[31] In his own original way Stravinsky noticed the massive amount of smoking at the recording session: "the atmosphere looked like Pernod clouded by water."[32] Ebony Concerto was performed live by the Herman band on March 25, 1946 at Carnegie Hall.
Despite the Carnegie Hall success and other triumphs, Herman was forced to disband the orchestra in 1946 at the height of its success. This was his only financially successful band; he left it to spend more time with his wife and family. During this time, he and his family had just moved into the former Hollywood home of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. One reason Herman may have disbanded was his wife Charlotte's growing problems with alcoholism and pill addiction. Charlotte Herman joined Alcoholics Anonymous and gave up everything she was addicted to. Woody said, laughing, "I went to an AA meeting with Charlotte and my old band was sitting there."[34] Many critics cite December 1946 as the actual date the big-band era ended, when seven other bands, in addition to Herman's, dissolved.
The Second Herd and other bands 1947-1987
In 1947, Herman organized the Second Herd. This band was also known as "The Four Brothers Band". This derives from the song recorded December 27, 1947 for Columbia records, "Four Brothers", written by Jimmy Giuffre. "The 'Four Brothers' chart is based on the chord changes of 'Jeepers Creepers', and features the three-tenor, one-baritone saxophone section[...]." The order of the saxophone solos is Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloff, Herbie Steward, and Stan Getz.[37] Some of the notable musicians of this band were also Al Cohn, Gene Ammons, Lou Levy, Oscar Pettiford, Terry Gibbs, and Shelly Manne.[38] Among this band's hits were "Early Autumn," and "The Goof and I". The band was popular enough that they went to Hollywood in the mid-nineteen forties. Herman and his band appear in the movie New Orleans in 1947 with Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.[39] From the late 1940s to the end of his life, record labels Herman recorded for include RCA,[40] Capitol,[40] MGM[41] and Verve.
Herman's other bands include the Third Herd (1950–1956) and various editions of the New Thundering Herd (1959–1987).[43] In the 1950s, the Third Herd went on a successful European tour.[44] He was known for hiring the best young musicians and using their arrangements. In the early and mid 1960s, Woody gained a wider recognition by fronting one of the most exciting Herds to date that featured future stellar names like Michael Moore (bassist), drummer Jake Hanna, tenor saxophonist Sal Nistico, trombonists Phil Wilson and Henry Southall and trumpeters like Bill Chase, Paul Fontaine and Dusko Goykovitch. By 1968, the Herman library came to be heavily influenced by rock and roll.[46] He was also known to feature brass and woodwind instruments not traditionally associated with jazz, such as the bassoon, oboe or French horn.
In 1974, Woody Herman's "Young Thundering Herd" appeared without their leader for Frank Sinatra's television special The Main Event and subsequent album, The Main Event – Live. Both were recorded mainly on October 13, 1974 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. On November 20, 1976, a reconstituted Woody Herman band played at Carnegie Hall in New York City, celebrating Herman's fortieth anniversary as a bandleader.[48] By the 1980s, Herman had returned to straight-ahead jazz, dropping some of the newer rock and fusion approaches.[49] Woody Herman signed a recording contract with Concord Records around 1980, now called the Concord Music Group.[50] In 1981, John S. Wilson warmly reviewed one of Herman's first Concord recordings "Woody Herman Presents a Concord Jam, Vol. I". Wilson's review says that the recording presents a band that is less frenetic than his bands from the forties to the seventies. Instead it takes the listener back to the relaxed style of Herman's first band of the thirties that recorded for Decca.
Last years
Herman continued to perform into the 1980s, after the death of his wife and with his health in decline, chiefly to pay back taxes caused by his business manager's bookkeeping in the 1960s.[52] As a result, Woody Herman owed the IRS millions of dollars and was in danger of eviction from his home.[53] With the added stress, Herman still kept performing. In a December 5, 1985, review of the band at the Blue Note jazz club for The New York Times, John S. Wilson pointed out: "In a one-hour set, Mr. Herman is able to show off his latest batch of young stars—the baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola, the bassist Bill Moring, the pianist Brad Williams, the trumpeter Ron Stout—and to remind listeners that one of his own basic charms is the dry humor with which he shouts the blues." Wilson also spoke about arrangements by Bill Holman and John Fedchock for special attention. Wilson spoke of the continuing influence of Duke Ellington on the Woody Herman bands from the nineteen forties to the nineteen eighties.[54] Before Woody Herman died in 1987 he delegated most of his duties to leader of the reed section, Frank Tiberi.[55] Tiberi leads the current version of the Woody Herman orchestra.[56] Frank Tiberi said at the time of Herman's death that he would not change the band's repertoire or library.[57] Woody Herman had a Catholic funeral on November 2, 1987, in West Hollywood, California.[58] He is interred in a niche in the columbarium behind the Cathedral Mausoleum in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Concord Music Group's website mentions these awards won by the various Woody Herman orchestras: "Voted best swing band in 1945 Down Beat poll; Silver Award by critics in 1946 and 1947 Esquire polls; won Metronome poll, band division, 1946 and 1953; won NARAS Grammy Award for Encore as best big band jazz album of 1963; won NARAS Grammy Award for Giant Steps as best big band jazz album of 1973."[59] Woody Herman was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.[60]
A documentary film titled Woody Herman: Blue Flame- Portrait of a Jazz Legend was released on DVD in late 2012 by the award-winning jazz documentary filmmaker Graham Carter, owner of Jazzed Media, to salute Herman and his centenary in May 2013.
Partial Discography
-
1963 Live Guard Sessions (2013) (with Sarah Vaughan)
-
40th Anniversary at Carnegie Hall 1999)
-
Antibes July 28th 1965 (1999)
-
Apple Honey (2008)
-
At Carnegie Hall, 1946 (2000)
-
At the Monterey Jazz Festival (2013
-
At the Woodchopper’s Ball
-
The Band that Plays the Blues (1937-1941) (2000)
-
The Band that Plays the Blues 1939 & The Third Herd 1952-1954 (2013)
-
Battle Royal (2006) (with Charlie Barnet & Stan Kenton)
-
The Best of Woody Herman (2012)
-
Big New Herd at the Monterey Jazz Festival (1999)
-
Blowin’ Up a Storm: The Columbia Years 1945-47) (2001)
-
Blowin’ Up a Storm (Jazz Greats Volume 22)
-
Blues & Swing Grove (2007)
-
Blues on Parade (1998)
-
Complete 1948-1959 Capitol Sessions) (2001)
-
Concord Jazz Heritage Series (1998)
-
Ebony Concerto (2006)
-
The Essence of Woody Herman (2008)
-
The Everest Years (2005)
-
Four Brothers (2004)
-
Four Brothers 1945-1947 (2008)
-
The Fourth Herd: 1963 Summer Tour (1994)
-
From East to West (2002)
-
Get Your Boots Laced Papa: Original Recordings 1938-1943) (2003)
-
Giants of Jazz (DVD Audio + DVD Video)
-
Giant Steps (1994)
-
Golden Greats (2002)
-
Herd With Friends (2013)
-
The Herd Rides Again … In Stereo (1992)
-
Herman & Cole - California Concerts 1949 (plus Nat King Cole and his Trio)
-
Herman’s Heat & Puente’s Beat (1999) (with Tito Puente)
-
It Had to be Us (1999) (with Ruby Braff
-
Jantzen Beach Oregon 1954 (1999)
-
Jazz Casual - Big Bands (2012) (with the The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra)
-
Jazz Hoot/Woody’s Winners (2001)
-
Jazz Masters 54 (2004)
-
Jazz Swinger/Music for Tired Lovers (2001)
-
Jazz Years, Vol. 1 (1999)
-
Legendary Big Bands Series (2000)
-
Let’s go to town (2009) (with Mindy Carson & Georgia Gibbs)
-
Light My Fire (1969) (Live Rome Italy May 1969)
-
Light My Fire (2000)
-
Live 1957 Vol. 1 (2000)
-
Live 1957 Vol. 2 (2000)
-
Live at Newport 3 July 1966 (2001)
-
Live in Warsaw (2000)
-
Mosaic Select (2009)
-
Music for Tired Lovers (2007) (with Erroll Garner)
-
Old Gold Rehearsals (2001)
-
One Night Stand: Live at the Hollywood Palladium (2003)
-
Presenting … Woody Herman (2007)
-
Presents Volume 2 … Fours Others (1993)
-
The Radio Years 1940-1941) (2000)
-
Road Band (2006)
-
Second Herd - 1948 (2000)
-
Seen & Herd in 1952 (2013)
-
Sings Ballads and Blues (1945-1947) (2005)
-
Sings Songs for Hip Lovers 2009)
-
Standard Times - The Third Herd (1951-1952) (2002)
-
The Swinging Herd (2012)
-
That’s Where It Is (2011)
-
The Third Herd Live 1951 (2000)
-
The Third Herd ‘Live’ 1952 (2012)
-
The 3 Herds (2011)
-
The Thundering Herds 1945-1947 (1995)
-
The Thundering Herd: Original Recordings 1945-1947 (2005)
-
This is Jazz (1997)
-
Thundering Herd (1995)
-
V Disc Years Vol’s 1 & 2 (2008)
-
Wailin’ with Woody (2000)
-
Who Dat Up Dere? (1999)
-
Wildroot (2001)
-
Woodsheddin’ with Woody (2006)
-
Woody Herman ‘58 (2007)
-
Woody Herman 1963 (2002)
-
Woody Herman and his Orchestra, 1956 (2000)
-
The Woody Herman Band! (2006)
-
The Woody Herman Shows 1944-1946 (2003)
-
The Woody Herman Story (2000) (4 CD Box Set)
-
Woody’s Gold Star (1990)
-
Woody’s Winners (2007)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia