Hefti, Li’l Darlin’

Neal Hefti (1922-2008) was born and raised in Nebraska. He took up the trumpet and, while still in high school, began arranging for the Nat Towles band. Towles’ band was one of the territory bands that played a significant role in spreading swing music and jazz and popularizing ballroom dancing. The territory bands were active from the 1920s to the 1960s. They covered specific regions of the country, mostly playing one-nighters in venues not covered by the major swing bands. Many of the big names in jazz, however, got their start in the territory bands.

Hefti would go on to work as a composer and arranger for many of the biggest names in swing, including Woody Herman, Duke Ellington, Harry James, and Count Basie. It was while working with Count Basie that he composed Li’l Darlin’ in 1957. Basie recorded the album The Atomic Mr. Basie in 1958 in which all of the numbers were composed by Hefti. That album won Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Performance by a Dance Band at the first Annual Grammy Awards.

In the 1960s Hefti wrote the theme and scores for several successful films. Most notable among them was The Odd Couple (1968). That theme music was also used in the subsequent television series. Although not his most musically significant composition, most people will recognize his 12-bar blues theme for the popular television series Batman (1966-1968).

We have featured several big band works in this series that tend to be highly energetic. Now considered a jazz standard, Li’l Darlin’ is instead an exercise in restraint. The Flugelhorns seen in this video substitute for trumpets. They have a somewhat more mellow sound and are often used in jazz.