Artie Shaw PDF
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A R T I C i U A Ul Also available from Continuum: CHILTON Roy Eldridge GRAY Song and Dance Man III HULTKRANS Forever Changes LEYMARIE Cuban Fire PALMER Sonny Rollins PETERSON A Jazz Odyssey SHEARING Lullaby of Birdland SHIPTON A New History of Jazz SHIPTON Fats Waller VAN RIJN The Truman and Eisenhower Blues ZANES Dusty in Memphis ARTIC (HflUI Mis Life and (Bum J O H fl W H I TE continuum NEW YORK • LONDON 2006 The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc 80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038 The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX www. continuumbooks. com Copyright © 1998, 2004 by John White Originally published in Great Britain in 1998 by The University of Hull Press. Revised edition published in 2004 by Continuum, by arrangement with Bayou Press Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers or their appointed agents. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd, King's Lynn, Norfolk Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data White, John, 1939 Feb. 5- Artie Shaw : his life and Music / John White.—rev. ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8264-6915-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Shaw, Artie, 1910- 2. Jazz musicians—United States—Biography. I. Title. ML419.S52W45 2004 788.6^2165 '092-dc22 2004000473 CONTENTS Preface 9 1 • Perspectives on Swing 17 2 « Interlude in B Flat: The Search for Identity 41 3 • Beginning the Beguine: $ucce$$ and Remorse 75 4 • War and Peace 115 5 • Cinderella and Other Stories 141 6 • Concerto for Clarinet: The Artistry of Shaw 171 7 • 'S Wonderful: Artie Shaw on Record 189 Coda The Best of Intentions 203 Select Bibliography 211 Index 219 She knows exactly how many times everybody's been divorced and why, and how many Warner brothers there are. She even knows how many times Artie Shaw's been married, which I bet he couldn't tell you himself. She asked me if I had ever married Artie Shaw, and when I said No, seemed to think I was pulling her leg or must have done it without noticing. I tried to explain that when a girl goes to Hollywood, she doesn't have to marry Artie Shaw, it's optional, but I don't think I con- vinced her. P. G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season (1949) I suppose Artie was the first intelligent, intellectual man I'd ever met, and he bowled me over. I remember that the first time he took me to a little Italian restaurant across from RKO studios. Artie looked across at me and said, "Ava, I think that physically, emotionally, and mentally you are the most perfect woman I've ever met." His eyes never moved from mine, and he went on, "And what's more, I'd marry you tonight, except for the fact that I've married too many wives already." Artie took it for granted that everyone was panting to marry Artie Shaw. Ava Gardner, Ava: My Story (1990) Artie Shaw was a great clarinet player, but I never felt he gen- erated the intensive drive that Benny Goodman did. At first, his band was a spin-off from the Goodman approach, but some of the things he did with strings were very rewarding. Artie had no sense of humor, in my opinion, and always took himself too seriously to suit me. Charlie Barnet, Those Swinging Years (1984) For Teresa PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION A s the dashing and handsome leader of one of America's most accomplished big bands in the 1930s and 1940s, Artie Shaw achieved measures of fame and fortune which for a time eclipsed even those of his great rival, Benny Goodman. Ac- cording to one estimate, Shaw's five top single recordings had sold over 65 million copies by 1965, and he has calculated that by 1990, his total sales topped 100 million records. In 1962 at a special ceremony in New York, Shaw received Golden Disc awards for his million-seller records: Begin the Beguine, Night- mare, Traffic Jam, Dancing in the Dark, Stardust, Summit Ridge Drive, and Back Bay Shuffle. All of them feature Shaw's superla- tive clarinet playing, remarkable for its plangent tone and aston- ishing technical facility. Unlike Goodman, who has been the subject of two recent and well-researched biographies—James Lincoln Collier's Benny Goodman and the Swing Era (1990), and Ross Firestone's Swing, Swing, Swing: The Life & Times of Benny Goodman (1993)—Shaw has not received comparable treatment by any jazz historian. This book is intended to remedy that omis- sion.
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