KJZZ Interviews

Today in Jazz

Woody Herman, clarinet ,1913, Milwaukee WI

Woody Herman began his career as a bandleader in the late 1930s, when he took over the Isham Jones band.  Woody was in the Jones band at that time, being hired  because he played alto sax, tenor sax, clarinet, and he could sing and he could dance.  He did it all.  The Jones band broke up in 1936 with most of the members taking jobs wherever they could find them.  The only way Woody could get the nucleus of a band to stay with him was to offer each member a piece of the profit. This was the beginning (and often changing) of one of the most dynamic big bands of all times.  In the early '40s there were many personnel changes such as Chubby Jackson,  Neal Hefti, Ralph Burns, Bill Harris and Flip Phillips.  First it was known as"The Band That Plays the Blues", and then, later,"Herman's Herd".. The "Herds",as they were known, were numbered as they changed.   The band eventually gained international fame, known for its force and the originality of it's music.  The 2nd Herd was one of the most popular.  It's main attraction (other than dynamic arrangements) was the saxophone section,( known as the "Four Brothers Band), comprised of StanGetz, Zoot Sims, Herbie Steward and SergeChaloff.  The jazz stars that made their way through the various Herds over the years reads like a who's who in jazz : Al Cohn, Bill Harris, Sonny Berman, the Candoli brothers, Bill Chase, Sal Nestico,Gene Ammons, Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne, Don Lamond, Stan Levey, DaveTough, and the list goes on and on.  In 1945 classical composer, Igor Stravinsky, fascinated with the Herman band, composed an extended work for Woody entitled "Ebony Concerto".  The work was a great success, and is still played today by rehearsal and workshop orchestras. In 1947 arranger Ralph Burns composed "Summer Sequence" for the band.  One section, "Early Autumn", featured a very short, few bar, solo at the end by Stan Getz. It's been said that this short solo helped launch the career of Stan Getz. " Beautiful" is the only way to describe this solo. Woody was loved by the public and by every musician who ever worked for him. His standards were always high and the Herman bands were always exciting. Woody Herman died in 1967.

Betty Carter, singer ,1930, Flint, MI

Betty Carter grew up in Detroit, Michigan, which became a great asset to her career.  During the '50s to the mid '60s, Detroit was one of the hotbeds of jazz in America, producing some of it's most dynamic musicians.  While in her teens, she sang with many of the best upcoming musicians in Detroit, and some of the best visiting musicians, such as Charlie Parker. By the time she joined Lional Hampton's band in 1948, she was using the stage name, Lorraine Carter.  Hampton began calling her Betty Bebop, and eventually she became known as Betty Carter.  In 1951 Betty went to New York with Hampton's band.  She remained in New York where she worked intermittently for the next two decades, appearing frequently at the Apollo theatre and in clubs throughout the area.   She also performed in Ray Charles's touring show during the early '60s.  From 1963 to 1968 Betty toured England, Japan, and France.   Over the years Carter was associated with several recording companies, running into trouble when she refused to make the concessions to popular taste that the companies demanded of her.  Betty preferred complex renditions of popular songs which, though often carefully planned,  captured the spirit of bop improvisation. She began to work with a trio of her own in 1969, and and two years later founded her own record company,  Bet-Car Productions.  From 1975 on she did a great deal of club work in New York  and continued to perform with her own trio into the mid '80s.  Betty also performed with large string orchestras under the direction of  David Amram in New York and Boston.   Like many artists, Betty will not compromise her principles concerning her work.

Billy Cobham, Drums, 1944, Panama

Billy was three years old when he moved, with his family, to New York City, where he later attended the High School of Music and Art.  After several years in the army,  he played Billy Taylor, Horace Silver,  and the New York Jazz Sextet during the late '60s.   He next was a founding member of an early jazz-rock band, Dreams with Randy and Mike Brecker. This group lasted for two years before disbanding.  During these years Billy also worked  with Miles Davis's fusion recordings, and in 1971 he became a member of John McLaughlin's  Mahavishnu Orchestra.  The power and precision of his playing with McLaughlin's group had a profound impact on later jazz-rock drumming and placed him with Tony Williams and Alphonse Mouzon among the leading drummers in this new style.  From around 1975  Billy had his own  fusion groups and played in numerous studio bands with Stanley Turrentine, Ron Carter, and other jazz musicians.  Today Billy is active as a teacher in university and  conservatory work-shops all over the country.   Cobham formed a new Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin in the mid '80s after returning from Switzerland, where he had lived for several years working as a freelance musician.  

May 2008    Week 20

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