Woody Herman - Woody's Whistle

Here’s another one of those big band swing numbers!

Even if you don’t have speakers, you should click through to see this album cover. Who are those women – and what did they win?

Each time I listen to this I get a picture of Doc Severson … and Johnny Carson’s late night band. Can’t you just hear them playing snippets of this on the Tonight Show?

It starts off with a trumpet – and the answering brass section – it’s kind of quiet leading into a clarinet section. So when the big “bop” section comes along you’re kind of surprised. One of the things I like about this arrangement is the group solos … you have a section with just the winds, then the trumpets, then clarinets, those sexy saxophones – and then the whole jambalaya.

 

About halfway through – they get small and quiet … and you just know they’re setting you up for that big blow … but first it’s the sweet sax and piano – with the muted horns following – now the bari shows up – and he just keeps layering sound upon sound. By the end you can just imagine them all swinging – playing for all they’re worth.

 

Got notice today – my writing critique group starts this week on Wednesday. There’ll only be three of us in this group – focus is completing the novel. (so really structure of the story). The other group is limited to character development – and slightly bigger.  I’m glad to be in this group – in the next twelve weeks I should really be able to make some headway (along with moaning and groaning, I am sure) with the story. But I’m anxious to fill in the gaps between the exposition – inciting incident – picking up the gauntlet – point of no return – climax – and resolution.

 

Anyway – that’s it for today. The sun is back – and the rest of the week should be beautiful (but more than likely humid *sigh*)