There's not really a definitive box set compiling most or all of Woody's output on Decca (some day I hope) but there is a release that can be purchased on CD and also digitally called The Original Decca Recordings.
There have been other sets like The Best of the Decca Years on CD and Woody Herman's Golden Favorites on record but I think this is a good starting point for the Decca recordings. This set gives you the original recording of Woodchoppers Ball and some of my favorite Woody tunes of that era such as Blues in the Night, Fan It, and what was to become Woody's theme song, Blue Flame. Woodys hit recording of the song that he wrote Woodchoppers Ball came out in 1939 and I was lucky enough to find an original 78 of it at a consignment shop some months back.
After passing the 30s and moving on into the 40s Woody was signed by Columbia records and had what was probably his biggest success on a label. There are several compilations both digitally and on CD and through records as well of his Columbia material so for someone who wants to experience his recordings on Columbia it really comes down to if you want just the hits, or if you want the hits and a few of the misses, or if you want nearly everything. I started with a neat little compilation part of the This Is Jazz series on CD which is This Is Jazz Volume 24, but there are much better compilations that give a wider range of songs and one of those might be more useful to you. I still think the best compilation of Woody's Columbia material which never made it to CD is the fantastic vinyl box set The Thundering Herds. There is a compilation on CD with the same title but as far as I can tell it's not the same thing. The Thundering Herds box set is great because there are several records with hours of great material and a large booklet with comments from Woody himself on all of the tracks. I myself have what they call a radio station copy which was given out only to disc jockeys and not meant to be sold in stores. Probably one of the best compilations of the Columbia material without going too expensive is an compilation called Blowing Up A Storm The Columbia Years 45-47.
However if you're looking for a complete set of all of Woody's Columbia output then at a rather expensive price the label Mosaic has The Complete Columbia Recordings.
I already talked a little bit about Woody's output on the Phillips label in the last post which can be found on another set by Mosaic and in a digital release called The Phillips Recordings so we'll move from the 40s to the 50s and talk about his few recordings for Capitol records. I do feel that Woody made some great recordings for Capitol like Lemon Drop and That's Right and there are a few ways to get them. There is a digital release called The Capitol Recordings but I don't know what company released it and I haven't tried to download it. On the other hand Mosaic has come once again to offer one of their rather pricey sets called The Complete Capitol Recordings.
We'll continue with the remaining years of Woody's work on CDs in the next post.
(Images taken from allmusic.com)
