 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jean
Date: 2002-07-09 14:04
For my birthday last week my husband gave me the Artie Shaw Self Portrait 5 cd set. Wow, what a wonderful gift. Shaw himself chose the selections. 95 pieces in all. Does anyone else have these cds? It really displays his career beautifully. My only regret is that he stopped playing so soon. Hard to believe it has been nearly fifty years since he stopped playing.
Jean
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Author: John Gibson
Date: 2002-07-09 15:34
Jean,
I also have the Self Portrait box set. As a musician, it's particularly interesting to hear the different versions of songs and get insight to mood at the time. Have another Artie CD with 3 versions of Frenesi. All different. One you can tell Artie is not into it. Probably fed up with having to play it and Stardust all the time.
The man was truly a master of the clarinet, and in my mind no one comes close. Probably because as he says....he was into the music not the clarinet. The clarinet was just a delivery system.
Have you heard his Clarinet Concerto?
John
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Author: ken
Date: 2002-07-09 15:53
Must order this CD today! Interesting numbers being thrown around about when Artie finally called it quits. Maybe someone can straighten me out. I've seen 20, 30, now 50 years since he retired. I know he played sparadically from as early as the mid-40s and maybe Jean got the 50 years from the CD liner notes. But, I'm almost certain he threw a band together for a short renunion tour in 1985. I've got a 1985 "Clarinet" magazine interview buried somewhere where he, or the interviewer touched on it. I might be mistaken but I was under the impression he played one last time as recently as 17 years ago, albeit a farewell stint?
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Author: ken
Date: 2002-07-09 16:29
Close but no cigar, thank you Mark. v/r KEN
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Author: Jean
Date: 2002-07-09 18:42
It was 1954 or 1955 when he quit. The Shaw band bears his name and he "kicked" the group off, but he does not and never has played with the band.
The booklet that comes with this CD set is wonderfully informative and has notes from Artie himself. I would love to find Max Kaminsky's bio, as he talks at length about the time the band spent in the War. Artie talks a bit about the time in the war. It kind of ticks me off that the Shaw band was in such dangerous spots but who do we hear about? The Glenn MIller Orchestra and what they did for the war effort. I guess if someone had died they would be heroes too. BTW, has Miller's death finally been determined? The last I heard was the Americans were getting rid of their payload over the English Channel and the bombs landed on Miller's plane.
Jean
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-07-09 20:14
I forgot to add - The biography of Max Kaminsky is out of print, but as referenced above, can often be found used...GBK
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Author: ken
Date: 2002-07-09 22:55
Shaw lived (and gratefully still does) his life according to his own rules, an American music legend in the tradition of Copland and Berlin. But like anyone else (or anyone of us) in music history he must pay the popularity price as a non-conformist. A true blue American patriot, he called it like it is (the way he saw it) but unfortunately had infinity for shunning the Hollywood establishment. If there was ever a jazz musician that did it "his way" and at all costs it was Artie. To his great credit, all the great black/discriminated jazz artists of the era (as with Benny) owe him thanks for helping to put some of them on the map. Artie was a "civil rights" innovator 20-30 years ahead of his time incorporating black musicians into his ranks often at his own ridicule and professional scorn. In retrospect however, he DID insist on leaning into a few of his own punches and deserved what he got. A brilliant and versatile mind on all accounts with multiple interests/talents, he didn't portray the "Jack Armstrong all-American Boy" image Miller did...and the war-driven U.S government propaganda machine wasn't all that accommodating. At times, Artie was at best a media rogue what with multiple-marriages to Hollywood starlets and celebrities. As a pure and raw swing jazz clarinetist, composer and arranger he (in my mind) blows every other big band jazz leader/sensation of the day out of the water... my major influence, mentor and hero. Long live Artie! v/r
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Author: john gibson
Date: 2002-07-09 23:47
Ken, et al...
Couldn't put it in any better terms but....will modernize it for those who may be a bit young....The Beatles(Benny Goodman,The beachboys) were great...but Artie Shaw(The Who, The Stones) took it to the edge and entertained beyond the realm of the mediocre.
Long Live Artie!!!
John
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Author: JackOrion
Date: 2002-07-10 01:41
Jean, you must keep an eye out for the 3 Musicmaster cd sets. You can still get "Last Recordings vol 2" which is the complete recordings of Arties last big band. He has these for sell on his website. "Last Recordings" and "More Last Recordings" are both two cd sets of the complete small band or his final Gramercy Five.
On "Self Portrait" disc 5 is dedicated to these recordings. They are the recordings that realy get to me, showing Artie at his best. Unfortunatly the Musicmaster releases (except Vol. 2) are out of print. Artie owns the rights to them and has not put them back into circulation but for Disc 5 of "Self Portrait". Why he left off "Tenderly" I have no idea. That recording is prime with the "Shearing" sound that he was going for, as well as one of his greatest flowing stream of concious solo's.
If you are into Shaw, you realy need to find these releases, or that is if you run across them don't hesitate to pick them up. Who knows when they will be issued again.
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