Bandleader Woody Herman

Beloved bandleader Woodrow Charles Herman is dead at 74 of pulmonary and cardiac ailments, his untimely demise doubtless hastened by the humiliating threat of eviction from his Hollywood Hills home. Whenever a jazz luminary passes on (and their ranks are thinning fast!) part of me dies with him, and my sadness this time is exacerbated by the ignominious financial straits of his final years.

Woody was a handsome and personable utility man who played fine sax and clarinet, and sang ballads and blues with equal verve and facility. He may well have been the inspiration for Ozzie Nelson’s plaintive lament, “I’m Looking for a Guy Who Plays Alto and Baritone, Doubles on the Clarinet and Wears a Size 37 Suit.” Though his famed “Herds” are universally praised by jazz critics, the favorite of this unreconstructed traditionalist is his original “Band That Plays the Blues,” which sprang phoenix-like in 1936 from the ashes of the Isham Jones orchestra.

Hail and farewell, dear old friend.

MARVIN H. LEAF

Rancho Mirage