Got Wood? Dept. - Woody Herman

Best result from the dullest photo research I ever did

Sax looks cool. You can curl your body around it, tuck it in, all those brassy curves and big mouth, from a sigh to a scream, breath from the belly. Playing the clarinet looks dumb. Standing up there, sucking a stick. Point it up, point it over there; point that damn thing where you want, it's never a good look. Artie Shaw came close, what with his B-list matinée idol looks. But Woody Herman looked like a car salesman flapping his lapels at a Catskills wedding. Nobody's idea of a leading man, or even a clarinet player, Woodrow gave up the battle against male pattern baldness as a teen and made do with what he had, which was enough talent to refloat the Titanic. Great bandleaders are pretty rare. Plenty of good ones, or good-enough ones. To be great, you have to be as good as the best in the band, both a team player and the boss. Woody saw the legends pass through his band over the decades, but the vision - that Thundering Herd of musicians whipping up a storm - was always his.

One to please the jazzbeaux diaspora today - The Complete Capitol Recordings, a rare limited edition set on Mosaic, lo-ong out of print, and the innerezding Thundering Herd from '74 where he covers, among other gems, America Drinks And Goes Home. A little nostalgia for the old folks.

Deliverables initially in flac - no, really - with sensible 192s added later. Scans included.