If the First Herd was a transition band and an opportunity for Johnny to get his feet wet in the big band business, the Second Herd was the first to settle into a groove. Johnny remembers it as an aggressive band, a bit rough around the edges perhaps, but with a lot of individualism and personality.

The evolution of the First Herd into the Second Herd was a difficult time for Johnny and the Airmen of Note. As mentioned earlier, there was a lot of turnover during this period because many musicians were leaving the service and others were transferring to other assignments. Good replacement musicians, especially those with big band experience, were hard to find. The Korean War build-up was over, and recruitment was way down. There were times when Johnny had to borrow musicians from the HeadCom Band or the Bandsmans School just to field a full crew. He even had to spend his vacation that year visiting field bands in hopes of finding some of the men he needed.

His persistence was rewarded. By the summer of 1957 the personnel was set once more, with the addition of veteran trombonist Jack Schnupp and pianist Kenny Sampson from New York City, saxophonists Gene Ventresca and Rick Torcaso from the Duquesne University music program, trumpeter Don Smith from the Harry James band, drummer Doug Marsh from the Sauter-Finegan orchestra, and bassist Bob Warren from the Chicago Symphony. Ken Grasley also returned to the Note about this time.

Alto Sax Gene Ventresca (57-60) Jim Staten (--58) Don Grossi (58--) Tenor Sax Gary Scott (--59) Rick Torcaso (57-60) Tony Osiecki (59--) Baritone Sax John Bowling (--58) Jim Staten (58-60) Piano Kenny Sampson (57-60) Bass Bob Warren (57-59) Don Dempsey (59--) Drums Doug Marsh (57-60)	Trumpet Don Smith (57-59) Ken Grasley (57--) Ray Stone (--60) Bobby Zottola (--58) Jim Fuller (58--) Scott Waller (59--) Trombone John Shuman (-60) Jack Schnupp (57--) Greg Phillips (--58) George West (--57) Jim Buchanan (58--) Houghton Peterson (58--) Vocalist Duff Thomas

On the Second Herd, Gene Ventresca was lead alto, John Shuman continued as lead trombone, and splitting the trumpet lead were Don Smith and Ken Grasley. A number of soloists were featured: Smith and Bobby Zottola on trumpet, Gary Scott and Rick Torcaso on tenor, Ventresca on alto, Jack Schnupp and George West on trombone, Doug Marsh on drums, and Kenny Sampson on piano.

Sparked by musicians of the "new school" like Ventresca, Torcaso, Sampson, Marsh, and West, and augmented by "veterans" Scott, Schnupp, and Zottola, the band loved to play, especially jazz and, the more modern the jazz the better. This sometimes caused problems, because the band's bread-and-butter was dance jobs, and the clientele usually preferred pretty music to exploring the frontiers of jazz. But Johnny looked for opportunities for the band to show off its jazz side, and even on dance jobs when the situation was right, he let the band go for it.

By this time Johnny had developed some definite ideas on what direction the band's music should be taking. He was very much impressed by the sounds of the new Count Basie band, and the Count graciously offered to let the Note use some of the new Neal Hefti charts that had become so popular. Johnny also obtained contemporary charts from top-flight arrangers such as Manny Albam and Nat Pierce. Although Sammy Nestico was still contributing arrangements, the Note didn't have a full-time arranger of its own. However, Johnny encouraged his musicians to write, and the book eventually included some excellent charts by Doug Marsh, Kenny Sampson, George West, Bobby Zottola, and Gene Ventresca.

The service club dances and airbase tours continued, and the band returned to the recording studios after a two-year absence. Programs like Reserved for You were still being aired during this period, but the producers had to fall back on material that had been taped in prior years. Starting in 1957, however, the Note began waxing some of the new sounds that had become such an important part of their repertoire.

Johnny knew that he had a first rate band, and one that was a real credit to the Air Force. He worked hard to find opportunities to present the band in concert format. Perhaps typical of those early efforts was a benefit jazz concert at Front Royale, Virginia on November 2, 1957. Sharing the stage that night was "The Four Saints" vocal group.

In the same year, the Note received some nationwide exposure when it appeared on the Lawrence Welk television show to commemorate the Air Force's 10th anniversary. The band was also featured at the world premiere of the Dean Hess movie Battle Hymn, at Marrietta, Ohio.

The following year saw the Airmen of Note return to Europe, this time on a 45-day State Department-sponsored tour, which included public concerts in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Crete. Perhaps the high point was opening the United States Pavilion at the World's Fair in Brussels. But wherever they played, they were enthusiastically received by the dedicated European big band fans. Their concert repertoire on this tour ran the gamut from Miller to Basie and from Dixieland to contemporary big band jazz.

In June of 1959 the Airmen of Note was invited to perform at the Grieg International Music Festival in Bergen Norway. They were the first jazz group to receive such an honor. The year 1959 also saw Metronome feature an article on the Airmen of Note. Another high point was a 1960 appearance at the Tri-State Jazz Festival in Enid, Oklahoma, where they performed Gordon Jenkins' Manhattan Tower Suite with the Phillips University Symphony Orchestra.

During this same period the band began to participate in the concerts presented by the service bands on the Mall in Washington DC. The first few summers the Note only did a single performance at the Watergate Amphitheater, but in later years the park concerts became an important part of the Note's summer schedule. These concerts provided an opportunity for the band to open up and show what it could do.

Another of Johnny's ideas was the special tuxedo uniform, which the band started wearing in 1957. Prior to this, the Airmen of Note had to appear in one of the regulation enlisted uniforms. Besides giving the band a sharp appearance, the new outfits eliminated some of the embarrassing situations that occurred when they did jobs at officer's clubs. The Air Force Association gets a lot of the credit here, both for moral support and for putting up the funds for the first set of uniforms.

By 1958, the Airmen of Note's schedule had become so heavy that a second Air Force Dance Orchestra was formed to handle some of the routine dance and service club work. This unit was called the VIP Orchestra and was under the direction of Bruce Snyder, one of the original members of the Airmen of Note. The VIP Orchestra was a smaller group, more on the order of a tenor band. The band's music leaned heavily toward "businessman's bounce." Musicians were drawn from the HeadCom Band, and the unit performed on a part-time basis for the about six years.