Woody Herman
Feelin' So Blue (Original Jazz Classics 953)

I can't tell if Feelin' So Blue is square but enjoyable, not square at all and fairly good, or so square it's pretty hip. I generally don't get into big band stuff that much, but I have a definite fetish for big band stuff from like 1968 to 1976 or so – I mean, no one but the people in the bands thought it was cool at that time, right? Even everyone's parents had moved on to the George Bensons and the Larry Carltonses and the Bob Jameseses.

So in a way, I view early 70s big band music as outsider art – there is an admirable integrity to plugging away even when no one seems to be listening. What I love about albums like this is that there is a decided tendency to attempt pop crossover success, but it never, ever happened.

Hence the inclusion of "Killing Me Softly With His Song" on this disc, offered up, no doubt, as some way of saying "See? We can still swing – I mean, be hip!" But no one was diggin' it.

Well, I applaud the few people who bought Feelin' So Blue when it came out in 1975, though I'm sure a certain percentage of those people were just seeking "some good jazz" rather than necessarily knowing what this album was per se.

Woody Herman, of course, was one of the genuine titans in the history of big band jazz, and as the sideburns grew out and the paunch inflated and the turtlenecks rose, he still managed to keep a vibrant Herd together, in the face of a radically changing face of jazz.

Neither avant circles nor the nascent smooth jazz contingent would probably have accommodated this type of group at the time – too blatantly commercial to be edgy, too huge to be cool – I see a definite subversiveness to it all. Maybe it was just that this was all Woody Herman knew how to do?

But honestly, his music from this period comes off better nowadays than the hipper Gil Evans's does – it's tighter and more honest, even though overall there is an irrelevance to it that can't be denied.

The songs blend contemporary songs ("Killing Me Softly," "Brotherhood of Man,") with Latin-flavored jazz tunes ("Echano," "Sombrero Sam") and a couple of slow-burners ("Evergreen," "This Time"). At various points the album sounds like it could be Chicago, Woody Shaw, Enoch Light, Fania All-Stars, and/or Chuck Mangione.

Woody even turns in a vocal on "This Time," which is recorded like a pop tune with a weird filter on his voice – adds nicely to the goofy vibe that characterizes the album.

This could probably become a favorite given time and a much smaller CD collection. I never find myself putting it on, though – in my collection as in the real world, Feelin' So Blue just falls through the cracks, a victim of its own kooky indecisiveness and the lack of a square hole.

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Review by Choo-Choo Rocket