The Miles Davis song about a man from Milwaukee is the song "Woody'N You," released by the Miles Davis Quintet in 1956 on their album, "Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet."
The Woody in the song "Woody'N You" is Milwaukee's own Woody Herman. And Woody Herman was no average Milwaukee man. In the 1940s he was a bona fide STAR. At one point he even bought and lived in Humphrey Bogart's house in the Hollywood hills.
Woody Herman was born right here in Milwaukee in 1913 and by six years old he was dubbed a child prodigy, billed as "The Boy Wonder of the Clarinet." When it came time for school he studied at Marquette University, before quitting to be a full time musician and gaining accolades and Grammy nominations through his long and illustrious career.
In the 1940s, after performing with his group Herman's Herd had its own radio show and performed at Carnegie Hall, bebop icon Dizzy Gillespie wrote an arrangement for and about Woody Herman called "Woody'N You." It was originally recorded in 1944 by Coleman Hawkins and performed by Hawkins' 12-piece orchestra, which included jazz legends Max Roach, Budd Johnson and Dizzy Gillespie. After that it entered into the rare category that every jazz song strives to become, the jazz standard. And since it has been recorded by Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins and even Miles Davis.
And every time "Woody'N You" has been performed by artists across the world, they are honoring Milwaukee's own, Woody Herman.
