Who is Artie Shaw

Artie Shaw played alto saxaphone as well as clarinet, and that versatility landed him jobs on many radio programs. Tommy Dorsey, the master trombonist, gave him a job. Shaw also played alongside Benny Goodman, with whom he had a huge rivalry, as Goodman was also an accomplished clarinetist. Shaw formed his own band, only to break it up and reform it over and over.

Artie Shaw's Big Band hits included "Begin the Beguine", "Stardust" (with a trumpet solo by Billy Butterfield), "Lady Be Good", "Back Bay Shuffle", "Summit Ridge Drive", "Traffic Jam", "Frenesi" and "Moonglow."

Shaw began to learn the saxophone at 14, and then the clarinet, leaving home at 15 to play all over the USA. At 16, Artie went to Cleveland for three years, the last two working with Bandleader Austin Wylie, as arranger and rehearsal manager. In 1927 went to Chicago to hear Louis Armstrong play. On a whim, he entered an essay competition and won a trip to Hollywood in 1928. A year later he had joined Irving Aaronson's band. In Chicago in 1930 with Aaronson he heard classical music, and incorporated what he heard into band arrangements. Artie left Aaronson in New York for work in recording studios and Radio. Disillusioned with music, he dropped out to farm for a few years, then picked up his education again in 1934.

Recording "Begin the Beguine" catapulted Shaw's ensemble from a travelling swing band to a national hit. Shaw's recording of Begin the Beguine was to become one of the best-selling records of all time.

Shaw was to break up the band and reformed it several times until the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor when Shaw enlisted in the US Navy - only to form another band to tour Military bases and ships as well as battlezones in the Pacific.

More breakups and reforms occured post-war, with Shaw studying classical form and recording albums of classical music, and even appearing at Carnegie Hall.

Throughout the early fifties, Shaw assembled bands and small combos, including the famous Gramercy 5, named for a telephone exchange. The Gramercy Five featured pianist Johnny Guarneri on harpsichord and Al Hendrickson on electric guitar. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge succeeded Billy Butterfield. The Gramercy Five's biggest hit was "Summit Ridge Drive."

See Artie Shaw on CD here.

"I'm through with dance bands. There are only so many times you can play 'Stardust.'" (1948)
"The 1949 band was the real reason I got out of the music business. It was a bust! All the public wanted was 'Beguine' and 'Frenesi'- you could become a one-tune player... I couldn't handle that." (ca. 1991.) Never an easy man to get along with, Shaw could be volatile. He hated the loss of privacy that came with fame, and had little respect for fans nor interest in signing autographs.

Shaw wrote his first book in 1951, a semi-autobiography called 'The Trouble With Cinderella: An Outline of Identity.' He packed up his clarinet in 1954, and in 1955 he left the United States for Spain. In 1960, he returned to the US and settled in Connecticut, where he continued his writing and publishing, then went to California in 1973. He would still give occasional interviews and also held various seminars including one on Art and one on the Big Band Era. He received two Honorary Doctorates, one from the California Lutheran University and one from the University of Arizona. He was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts but did not live to collect the award which was to have been given to him the following week.

Artie Shaw died, aged 94, on December 30, 2004, of natural causes, although he had been diabetic for years.

See Artie Shaw on CD here

Artie Shaw's band personnel varied from year to year; they included the following:

Vocalists
Billie Holliday
Helen Forrest
Tony Pastor
Imogene Lynne
Pat Lockwood
Trudy Richards
Hot Lips Page

Trumpets
Billy Butterfield
Roy Eldridge
George Schwartz
Ray Linn
Bernie Glow
Stan Fishelson
Pan Palladino
Don Fagerquist:
Dale Pierce
Vie Ford

Saxophones
Rudy Tanza, Lou Prisby, Herb Steward, Frank Socolow (alto)
Jon Walton, Herbie Steward, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims (tenor)
Chuck Gentry, Danny Bank (baritone)

Piano
Dodo Marmarosa
Hank Jones
Gil Barrios

Drums
Lou Fromm
Joe Roland
Irv Kluger
George Wettling
Cliff Leeman
Buddy Rich
Dave Tough

Trombone
Will Bradley
Rob Swift
Harry Rodgers
Ollie Wilson
Sonny Russo
Fred Zito
Angie Callea
Porky Cohen
Gus Dickson
Rob Swift
Harry Rodgers:

Guitar
Barney Kessel
Tal Farlow
Joe Puma
Jimmy Raney

Bass
Tommy Potter
Dick Niveson

Vibraphone
Irv Kluger

Harpsichord
Johnny Guarnieri

See Artie Shaw on CD here