# Woody Herman recorded the three parts in 1946, when … Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/10/07/herman-recorded-three-parts-september-46-saxophonist-flip-phillips-bands-chief-saxophone-soloist-video/
- Published: 2017-10-07T10:13:08+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**In 1946, the classically inclined arranger Ralph Burns brought a three-part neo-
Impressionist suite to bandleader Woody Herman called _Summer Sequence_. **

As Gary Giddins notes in his superb book, _Visions of Jazz _(Oxford), Herman recorded
the three parts in September ’46, when saxophonist Flip Phillips was the band’s 
chief saxophone soloist. But in the 78 era, three parts of anything was ill-fated.
You needed four parts to fill four sides of two records. So Columbia, Herman’s label
at the time, shelved the masters. [Photo of Ralph Burns by William P. Gottlieb in
April 1947]

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 A 
year later, in the fall of ’47, Herman overhauled his band, commissioning arrangements
that emphasized his saxophones. Herman’s newly revamped reed section initially featured
Sam Marowitz (as), Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Herbie Steward (ts) and baritone saxophonist
Serge Chaloff. When Marowitz left sortly after, Herman stepped in to play the alto
part. Burns was commissioned to write Part IV of _Summer Sequence,_ which the band
recorded on December 27, 1947, just days before the start of the second American
Federation of Musicians’ recording ban. My guess is that with a paralyzing recording
ban bearing down on the music industry that fall, Columbia exhumed everything it
had in the vaults and prepared it for market. This included _Summer Sequence,_ for
which Burns was asked to write a fourth part.

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 The
big surprise in Part IV came two minutes into the recording, when Getz (above) took
a beautiful, yearning eight-bar solo that was considered revelatory at the time.
And the melodic reed writing by Burns that followed Getz’s solo hinted at a new 
song waiting to be born.

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 By
the time the recording ban ended in the fall of 1948, Herman had left Columbia for
Capitol. Struck by the second portion of _Summer Sequence Part IV,_Herman had Burns
re-arrange it as a new reed-centric song called _Early Autumn_. Getz was the featured
soloist.

In 1952, Herman asked Johnny Mercer to write a lyric, and Herman wound up with a
co-writing credit on the vocal version. Jo Stafford was first to record the song
on June 24th, with Ella Fitzgerald coming next two days later on the 26th, and Herman
recording his vocal version in July. _Early Autumn_ quickly became a jazz standard.

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