ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Track Listing Side 1: Suitie For A Hot Band First/Second/Third Movement). Side 2: Green Earrings, Kid Charlemagne, I've Got The News, Aja, FM.

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Chick's liner notes:

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Notes:

A current connection between Steely Dan and Woody Herman is the trobonist Jim Pugh. He's been playing on Steely Dan tours since 2000, but way back when, after his musical education, he joined Woody Herman's band as lead trombone and featured soloist for touring and for Grammy Award-winning albums such as Giant Steps and Thundering Herd.

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Dick LaPalm was also involved in another album of jazz covers of Steely Dan tunes; Hoops McCann Plays The Music Of Steely Dan released in 1988. But that's another album, another story.

Album # 60 is Chick, Donald, Walter & Woodrow - The Woody Herman Band (1978)

Back in 1978 Woody Herman was a veteran jazz musician in his mid-60's. A living legend who nevertheless tried to keep his sound fresh and eager to listen to new stuff.

Maybe that's the reason he ended up recording this album, with one side filled with a suite in three parts that Chick Corea wrote and arranged, and the other side five Steely Dan covers. Here's what Woody Herman wrote in the liner notes:

The man who put Donald, Walter and Woody in contact was Dick LaPalm, who had been working at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles where Can't Buy A Thrill was recorded. He also knew Woody Herman and Donald and Walter were fans of him and had no poblems with Woody Herman wanting to record some of their songs..

How much did Donald Fagen and Walter Becker take part in the recording? Like Chick they can't be heard on the actual record, but they did meet with Herman to pick the songs for the album. They also wrote a fun little liner note for the album.

N.S.