A Classic Collaboration : 4-Day Tribute in Newport Beach Will Honor Woody Herman

Ralph Burns never suspected that one of his compositions for the Woody Herman band would lead to a collaboration between the famed Big Band leader and one of the 20th Century’s greatest composers.

Nevertheless, it apparently was “Bijou,” a Latin-ish piece Burns wrote for Herman in 1944 and featuring famed trombonist Bill Harris that piqued Igor Stravinsky’s interest in Herman’s band.

“Stravinsky liked all the sounds that were coming out of the band on ‘Bijou.’ That’s what Woody told me,” Burns said by phone from his home in the Hollywood Hills.

Burns, 71, was Herman’s pianist and chief arranger from 1944 to 1945 and continued to compose for the band through the ‘50s. He is one of more than 50 former Herman associates who will participate in “Early Autumn,” a four-day tribute to the bandleader and his music today through Sunday at the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach.

After hearing “Bijou,” Stravinsky approached Herman and offered to write a work for the group: That was “Ebony Concerto,” the landmark jazz-classical hybrid that the Herman band recorded in 1946 on Columbia Records and which spotlighted Herman’s clarinet.

Burns said it was the thrill of a lifetime watching Stravinksy rehearse his difficult four-movement concerto with the band in New York City in 1945.

“It was quite an event, and a shot in the arm for both Stravinsky and for Woody,” Burns said.

“It also must have been quite a shock for Stravinsky” to hear his piece for the first time, Burns said. “At that time, all the big bands blasted. But Stravinsky wanted things played medium loud, so he could hear the inner voicings.

“And he didn’t know that the guys in the band weren’t such good readers, so they eventually played the piece practically by memory.

“They were very serious about it. But it was thrilling having Stravinsky there. At the time, a lot of guys would get together and listen to his ‘Rite of Spring’ and ‘Firebird.’ He was everybody’s God,” said Burns, who later wrote for Broadway and film (“Sweet Charity,” “New York, New York”).

Although there are no plans to perform “Ebony Concerto” during this week’s Herman tribute, the work that inspired it, “Bijou,” almost certainly will be, as will “Early Autumn,” another Burns original that was part of Burns’ “Summer Sequence,” a four-part suite composed in 1946. (The tribute, which will include concerts and panel talks, was put together by the organizers of the Hyatt’s annual summer jazz series as a follow-up to their successful 1991 “Back to Balboa” tribute to Stan Kenton, also held at the hotel.)

“Woody was inspired by Duke Ellington’s 1943 suite, ‘Black, Brown and Beige,’ and wanted me to write something like that, a serious jazz suite in three movements,” Burns said.

“So (Herman band bassist) Chubby Jackson said his mother had a room for rent at her home on Long Island, and there was a piano there, so that’s where I went in the summer of 1946 and wrote the piece. That was a great summer.”

Interestingly, the best-known number from the piece, “Early Autumn,” came about after Burns had finished the suite, or so he thought.

“Woody told me we needed a fourth movement to fill out the recording,” he said. “Stan Getz had just joined the band, and Woody liked to have a feature number for the soloists, so I wrote this one for Stan.”

The gorgeous ballad, which wasn’t recorded on its own until 1948, two years after “Summer Sequence,” became Burns’--and Getz’s--signature piece.

“I felt great,” Burns said. “Let’s face it. Stan made the record famous, and the record made Stan famous. It was one of the golden times in my life, musically.”

It wasn’t so bad, either, Burns said, to travel with Herman in 1944-45, when his band was called the First Herd and featured such greats as Harris, saxophonist Flip Phillips and trumpeter Sonny Berman.

“Those were fantastic days,” he said. “Woody was hot, and we’d come stomping into town like the Dallas Cowboys, and wherever we played--a dance hall, a concert--it would be sold out.”

Burns, who studied for two years at the New England Conservatory of Music, was an admirer of Ellington when he joined Herman after writing and playing piano with the band of Charlie Barnet. Herman wanted that Ellington sound, Burns said.

“He was looking to change the sound of his band from sort of modern Dixie to being the white Count Basie-Duke Ellington, which was fine with me,” Burns said.

Though Herman knew little about composing, he knew what he liked, Burns said.

“I used to get complicated, sitting up in these hotel rooms writing all these notes, and Woody would say, ‘Simple is better,’ ” Burns said. “And I’d take out some of the notes and the piece would swing better.”

Herman was a “wonderful guy,” said Burns, but he was not without his own complexities.

“He was not like a buddy to us; he was more like a father,” Burns said.

“He was always joking, but then he could turn around and buzz you off,” he said. “Still, he always helped me. And with him I made more money than I had ever made in my life.”

* Ralph Burns conducts music from Herman’s First Herd tonight at 8 as part of “Early Autumn,” being held through Sunday at the Hyatt Newporter, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach. Individual concerts, $7.50-$15. All-event pass, $225. (714) 729-1234, (310) 420-7480.