- Format: CD
- Label: Fantasy
- Genre: Jazz
With a few brief interruptions, Woody Herman operated a big band for 50 years. Some of its editions were among the great bands of jazz history. Because of his leadership and his unerring ability to find the best young players and develop them, he never had a band that was less than interesting or one that didn't swing. This 1974 version, named after Woody stopped numbering the Herds, included a few veterans and a lot of exciting young soloists, among them Greg Herbert, Tony Klatka, Jim Pugh, and Andy Laverne. It also had arrangers of great imagination. Klatka, Alan Broadbent, and Bill Stapleton fashioned jazz standards, pop tunes, and originals into charts that were both fresh and suited to the Herman tradition. This Herd could indeed thunder. And its quiet moments, as in "Naima," were exquisite.
Track listing: Lazy Bird, Blues for Poland, What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, America Drinks and Goes Home, Naima, Corazon, Come Saturday Morning, Bass Folk Song
