Announcing the publication of Poodie James the other day, I included an excerpt from the only episode in the novel in which Poodie reacts to music. To read it, go here and you will see that the music, at a dance, is “Caldonia,” played by Woody Herman’s band. After it became a hit in 1945, Herman kept the piece in his book for the rest of his life. As frequently happens to music that stays in a band’s repertoire, “Caldonia” got faster and faster as the years went by.
By 1964, “Caldonia” was jet-propelled. In this video, the music is going by so fast that no improviser could achieve profundity in his solo. Who cares. The point at this tempo is to swing and make people happy. Watch Woody as a succession of his soloists tears into the blues, and see how happy they make him. In order, you’ll see and hear the upstate New York terrors of the tenor saxophone Joe Romano and Sal Nistico, trumpeter Billy Hunt, trombonists Phil Wilson and Henry Southall, and bassist Chuck Andrus. The astounding drummer is Jake Hanna. Take a deep breath and click on this link.
When you have recovered, go here and listen to the 1945 recording of “Caldonia” by Herman’s First Herd.
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
great blog. it’s the only one I’ve ever read.
This supercharged 1964 version is a lot of fun, with awesome Jake Hanna percussion, as you say. The 1945 version, as recorded on Columbia and heard on the First Herd’s Saturday nite radio show for Wildroot (“better get Wildroot cream oil,Charlie, it keeps your hair in trim…”) features the mordant wit of Bill Harris, Flip Phillips’ smoothly swinging tenor, maybe Ralph Burns still on piano, and Chubby Jackson’s joyful bass. And the brass section descant, led by the Candolis, that caused those of us in the radio studio to fall down in awe.
When the Herman band visited London in the 1960s I was told by Dusko Goykovich – whom I knew from Berklee – that when Jake Hanna joined the band Woody, forgetting he was new, just called ‘Caldonia’ and Jake set off the impossibly fast tempo. The trumpeters looked at each other saying ‘it’s impossible at this tempo but we have to do it!’
I’ll be checking this story with Dusko in due course when I take a last pre-publication look at my “Jazz Composer “book in which it appears.
Graham Collier
Being from Western New York I’ve had many opportunities to hear the great Joe Romano ( Joe “Cheese” as we call him) over the years.
Joe has always had the drive and mastery of the tenor saxophone as seen in this clip, and I always get a kick out of seeing a old video of him with Herman and Rich.
When Joe Locke was a youngster and still in High School, he used to play in Joe Cheese’s band in Rochester, where we are all from.
Now, I believe, Joe is living in Port Townsend, Washington and still playing great. He must be older than 75 now!
Tom Marcello
I was fortunate enough to study arranging with trombonist and Herman-alumni Vaughn Wiester in college. Vaughn also directed the college big band, and taught us many invaluable concepts learned from his time on Woody’s band during the mid-70’s. The most important of these was playing in “time,” which is different from tempo. “Time” is the synchronicity of every player utilizing the same conception of where the notes lie on the beat. Another of Vaughn’s axioms applies to a tune like “Caldonia” – if the tempo is fast, think slow (and vica-versa). This allows the player to, even at the fastest tempos, concentrate on picking off the notes in a relaxed manner.