Woodrow ‘Woody’ Herman (originally Herrmann) led several of the most exciting big bands in jazz history, hitting peaks of achievement in the 1940s that few have equalled. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1913 to German immigrants, Herman began his stage career in vaudeville as a child, but his ambition was to lead his own band. He played ...
(Yo-han Hâr’-man Shin) 1586–1630 German composer Schein trained at Dresden, Naumburg and Leipzig and finally took charge of the music at St Thomas’s, Leipzig, in 1616. His first vocal music collection, Cymbalum Sionium (1615), brings together settings of Latin and German texts in a variety of styles. A more modern outlook, embracing the Italian idiom and demonstrating ...
(Trumpet, flugelhorn, composer, 1944–89) A lyrical soloist, composer and bandleader, Shaw’s career was cut tragically short by illnesses, including deteriorating vision, and a subway accident that cost him an arm. After early work with Willie Bobo and Eric Dolphy, Shaw played extensively in Europe with US expatriates Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and ...
(Vocals, songwriter, author, 1912–67) Arguably the most influential of all folk singers (Bob Dylan is one of his greatest admirers), Oklahoma-born Woodrow Wilson Guthrie experienced life’s adversities in his early years, with his mother committed to an insane asylum, and facing the severity of the Dust Bowl with his father in Texas. Such emotional and environmental ...
(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1950) One of Holland’s premier country artists, Hermanns recorded with the folk group Heating, before joining country act The Tumbleweeds, whose eponymous 1975 album went platinum. Their cover of Merle Haggard’s ‘Somewhere Between’ topped the Dutch pop chart. In 1977, he formed his own country band, Tulsa, touring Europe and ...
(Vocal group, 1963–present) Peter ‘Herman’ Noone (vocals) had been a TV actor before the group’s maiden single, 1965’s ‘I’m Into Something Good’, was a hit both at home and in the States; ‘Hermania’ was manifested by high Hot 100 climbs for songs such as ‘Silhouettes’, ‘Mrs Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter’ and ‘Listen People’ before a predictable decline ...
Unusually among musical instruments, a specific date has been posited for the invention of the clarinet. Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremberg has been claimed as the man who, in 1700, devised and built the first of these instruments. Like all the best stories, however, the history of the clarinet is shrouded in mystery. The instrument attributed ...
The flugelhorn developed from the bugle, a signalling horn used in the Middle Ages and made out of bull or ox horn. This developed into a large, semicircular hunting horn made of brass or silver that was used by the military during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). History Wrapping the horn around itself once, so the bell pointed ...
(Clarinet, baritone, tenor and soprano saxophones, b. 1921) Jimmy Giuffre composed ‘Four Brothers’ for Woody Herman’s saxophone section in 1947 and later joined the Second Herd. He formed his important trio with Jim Hall (guitar) and Ralph Peña (bass) in 1957, then replaced bass with Bob Brookmeyer’s trombone in 1958. A subsequent trio with Paul Bley (piano) ...
(Various saxophones, clarinet, drums, b. 1952) The son of Cleveland saxophonist Tony ‘Big T’ Lovano, Joe Lovano attended Berklee School of Music before working in organ groups. He was in Woody Herman’s 1970s Thundering Herd and Mel Lewis’s Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, freelanced extensively and joined drummer Paul Motian’s trio with Bill Frisell in 1990. He has ...
(Bass, cello, composer, 1922–60) Oscar Pettiford was the first bass player to develop the new melodic and rhythmic concepts of bebop on his instrument and was an accomplished cellist and composer. He was of mixed African-American and Native American extraction and had a famously irascible temperament, frequently falling out with his many collaborators. He worked with Duke ...
(Tenor saxophone, 1927–91) Stan Getz was one of many white tenor saxophonists influenced by Lester Young, but as he matured he developed a distinctive sound of his own. After working with Jack Teagarden, Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey and Benny Goodman, Getz became one of the ‘Four Brothers’ in Woody Herman’s Second Herd. From the 1950s onwards ...
(Vocals, 1913–69) Raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Wynonie Harris first came to prominence in the Lucky Millinder Orchestra of 1944, where he had a number-one Race Chart hit, ‘Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well’. A leather-lunged shouter in the Big Joe Turner tradition, Harris had a long successful run on King records (1947–57), which produced ...
(Tenor, soprano and alto saxophones, 1925–85) John ‘Zoot’ Sims performed in the family vaudeville act as a child and was a professional musician at 15. His Lester Young-derived tenor sound and artful improvisations were heard to advantage in large and small bands. He worked with Benny Goodman intermittently over four decades, and was part of Woody Herman’s famous ...
The popularity of jazz hit a peak after the Depression years of 1929–33. By the end of 1934, huge numbers were tuning in to the NBC Radio series Let’s Dance, which broadcast performances by The Xavier Cugat, Kel Murray and Benny Goodman Orchestras. Goodman’s orchestra in particular caught on with the public and created a demand for live ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.