Saxophonist, clarinetist, vocalist and band leader Woodrow Charles “Woody” Herman was born on May 16, 1913 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Woody’s father got him into performing at an early age and he was singing and dancing in vaudeville shows before he picked up a clarinet at the age of 12.

At age 15, Woody was working as a vocalist and sideman with several ensembles, including those of Gus Arnheim and Isham Jones, before becoming a bandleader himself. When Jones retired in 1936, Herman took over the band and before long the Woody Herman group became known as “The Band that Plays the Blues.” Their first recording was Wintertime Dream, made in November of 1936, but the band’s first hit was Woodchopper’s Ball in 1939.

Starting around 1942 Herman began to change the kind of music his band was playing, becoming one the first large ensembles to embrace the new sounds of the growing be-bop revolution.  He hired Dizzy Gillespie to write some arrangements for the group including Woody’n You and Swing Shift. This band became known as the first of Woody Herman’s Thundering Herds. After signing with Columbia Records in 1945, the band recorded hits like Louis Jordan’s Caldonia, and Igor Stravinsky wrote Ebony Concerto specifically for Herman and his band.  They performed the Stravinsky piece at their March 1946 appearance at Carnegie Hall.  1946 was not a good year for big bands and along with many others, the Herman group disbanded in December of that year.

By 1947, though, Herman had formed the second herd, or the “Four Brothers Band,” with Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, Herbie Steward and Serge Chaloff (the four brothers) in the sax section. Always adapting to the jazz environment in which he found himself, in the 1950s Herman’s band began to perform hard bop tunes by composers like Horace Silver, and by the early 1960s they were playing Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Herbie Hancock. When the 1970s rolled around Woody Herman began performing on soprano saxophone almost exclusively, and his band was playing arrangements of Chick Corea’s La Fiesta, Eddie Harris’ Freedom Jazz Dance and Coltrane’s Giant Steps.

Woody Herman led a big band almost continuously from 1936 until his death in 1987.  During that time his bands “managed the difficult feat of maintaining a feeling of continuity…while allowing a gradual stylistic evolution to take place over the decades.”

For the purposes of comparison, here are links to two recordings by the Woody Herman Orchestra.  The first is their first hit record, Woodchoppers Ball from 1939:

"WOODCHOPPER'S BALL"