Search - Woody Herman :: Woody Herman (Mosaic Select)

Complete Philips Recordings

David Renzi | Las Vegas | 04/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the motherload for fans of Woody's early- to mid-`60s band. Some rate this his greatest Herd ever, and it may be. The band is on fire, and here at last is its entire oeuvre for the Philips lablel. Great soloists (Sal Nistico, Phil Wilson, Nat Pierce) and ensemble playing, plus Jake Hanna and Chuck Andrus holding it all together. What's disturbing is the Amazon list price for a new copy. $83.00? Are you serious? I guess the preposterous price is a result of its import status, in which case Connecticut, home to Mosaic Records, the distributor of this three-disc collection, must have left the union when I wasn't looking. By all means get this if you're a Herman fan, but do yourself a favor and buy it directly from Mosaic Records for $44 brand new."

Worth The Wait!

Jeffrey W. Hall | Saginaw, Mi. USA | 02/01/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a wonderful job done by both the great early 60's Woody Herman Band as well as the engineers. It is really great to be able to hear this fantastic band this way. You can hear everything, and I mean everything that the band is playing. Of course, those of you who know just how fantastic a big band this was know that we would get bits and pieces of these recordings from time to time but never all of them "in the same barrel". Here's your chance. Don't wait too long, I'm sure that this will be sold out pretty soon. It comes with all of the original liner notes as well as an update by the producer of these Philips records, Jack Tracy. Buy it-you won't regret it. It is less expensive by going direct to Mosaic Records by the way."

Swinging, big-band jazz

Carlo Wolff | Cleveland, OH USA | 09/12/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"These Woody Herman recordings from the early to mid-'60s boast modernist arrangements, spectacular solos and a judicious selection of pop covers. These roaring, democratic dates suggest that Herman was a thoughtful sort capable of switching between incendiary soloing and giving his great players plenty of solo room themselves. The Mosaic Select box resurrects three albums from the long out-of-print Mercury and Smash catalog, including a live date from 1964. Big-band jazz is one of the nichiest areas in jazz, a niche genre of its own. This box attests to a period when jazz still had affinities with pop; the mid-'60s, after all, was one of the richest periods ever when it came to musical fermentation. This music--not avant-garde but intriguingly experimental and often daring--had wide appeal then and should have wide appeal now. Get it before it disappears again: Mosaic made only 5,000 of these."