Woody Herman And The Swingin' Herd

Please use this profile for the 1960's big band and their releases. For the big band with the same name on 1956 studio recordings on Capitol, please use Woody Herman And The Swingin' Herd (2)

The first appearance of the name 'Swingin Herd' came, after the chapter Woody Herman And The Las Vegas Herd was closed at the end of 1955. In the later stage of Woody Herman And The Fourth Herd, Herman tended more and more to work with smaller units of the big band. After a road tour in 1959, Herman found the fourth herd 'no more swinging'. So the fourth herd was disbanded in October 1959.
The Swinging Herd was founded by Herman in January 1960 in New York City with many young and motivated musicians, the first appearance was in Chicago in a TV show on January 22nd, 1960.
It was the Woody Herman orchestra in the early and mid-sixties and lasted as last continuous big band of Woody Herman. This period ended with the 1967 Monterey Jazz Festival, when the era of e.g. Woody Herman And The Thundering Herd and other big bands coexisted in the Woody Herman universe to enter the Fusion era.