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Artie Shaw

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Wikimp3 information about the music of Artie Shaw. On our website we have 70 albums and 70 collections of artist Artie Shaw. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that Artie Shaw represents Jazz genres.

Biography

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One of jazz's finest clarinetists, Artie Shaw never seemed fully satisfied with his musical life, constantly breaking up successful bands and running away from success. While Count Basie and Duke Ellington were satisfied to lead just one orchestra during the swing era, and Benny Goodman (due to illness) had two, Shaw led five, all of them distinctive and memorable.

After growing up in New Haven, CT, and playing clarinet and alto locally, Shaw spent part of 1925 with Johnny Cavallaro's dance band and then played off and on with Austin Wylie's band in Cleveland from 1927-1929 before joining Irving Aaronson's Commanders. After moving to New York, Shaw became a close associate of Willie "The Lion" Smith at jam sessions, and by 1931 was a busy studio musician. He retired from music for the first time in 1934 in hopes of writing a book, but when his money started running out, Shaw returned to New York. A major turning point occurred when he performed at an all-star big band concert at the Imperial Theatre in May 1936, surprising the audience by performing with a string quartet and a rhythm section. He used a similar concept in putting together his first orchestra, adding a Dixieland-type front line and a vocalist while retaining the strings. Despite some fine recordings, that particular band disbanded in early 1937 and then Shaw put together a more conventional big band.

The surprise success of his 1938 recording of "Begin the Beguine" made the clarinetist into a superstar and his orchestra (who featured the tenor of Georgie Auld, vocals by Helen Forrest and Tony Pastor, and, by 1939, Buddy Rich's drumming) into one of the most popular in the world. Billie Holiday was with the band for a few months, although only one recording ("Any Old Time") resulted. Shaw found the pressure of the band business difficult to deal with and in November 1939 suddenly left the bandstand and moved to Mexico for two months. When Shaw returned, his first session, utilizing a large string section, resulted in another major hit, "Frenesi"; it seemed that he could not escape success. Shaw's third regular orchestra, who had a string section and such star soloists as trumpeter Billy Butterfield and pianist Johnny Guarnieri, was one of his finest, waxing perhaps the greatest version of "Stardust" along with the memorable "Concerto for Clarinet." The Gramercy Five, a small group formed out of the band (using Guarnieri on harpsichord), also scored with the million-selling "Summit Ridge Drive."

Despite all this, Shaw broke up the orchestra in 1941, only to re-form an even larger one later in the year. The latter group featured Hot Lips Page along with Auld and Guarnieri. After Pearl Harbor, Shaw enlisted and led a Navy band (unfortunately unrecorded) before getting a medical discharge in February 1944. Later in the year, his new orchestra featured Roy Eldridge, Dodo Marmarosa, and Barney Kessel, and found Shaw's own style becoming quite modern, almost boppish. But, with the end of the swing era, Shaw again broke up his band in early 1946 and was semi-retired for several years, playing classical music as much as jazz.

His last attempt at a big band was a short-lived one, a boppish unit who lasted for a few months in 1949 and included Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Don Fagerquist; their modern music was a commercial flop. After a few years of limited musical activity, Shaw returned one last time, recording extensively with a version of the Gramercy Five that featured Tal Farlow or Joe Puma on guitar along with Hank Jones. Then, in 1955, Artie Shaw permanently gave up the clarinet to pursue his dreams of being a writer. Although he served as the frontman (with Dick Johnson playing the clarinet solos) for a reorganized Artie Shaw Orchestra in 1983, Shaw never played again. He received plenty of publicity for his eight marriages (including to actresses Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, and Evelyn Keyes) and for his odd autobiography, The Trouble With Cinderella (which barely touches on the music business or his wives), but the outspoken Artie Shaw deserves to be best remembered as one of the truly great clarinetists. His RCA recordings, which were reissued in complete fashion in a perfectly done Bluebird LP series, have only been made available in piecemeal fashion on CD.

Title: Always The Best Hits

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Living For My Music

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Night And Day Vol 1

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz, Rock

Title: Chantez Les Bas

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Pop

Title: A Song And a Dance

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Night And Day Vol 2

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz, Rock

Title: Begin the Beguine

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Serenade to a Savage

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Zigeuner (2-26-59)

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: 30 Greatest Hits

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: 12 Best of Artie Shaw

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: 10 Tops: Artie Shaw

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Children's Stories

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Kids

Title: 8 Best of Artie Shaw

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Mystic Moments

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Dance to Artie Shaw

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Copenhagen - Single

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Pop

Title: The Bandleader

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Look Into The Future

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Reindeers Best Hits

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: 16 Best of Artie Shaw

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: 20 Best of Artie Shaw

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Easter On The Catwalk

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: 1936 - 1937 (Live)

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Temptation

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Super Top Hits

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Pussy Cat

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: The Legend

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Moon Glow

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Artie's Art

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Traffic Jam

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz, Rock, Pop

Title: The Chant

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: 1937 (Live)

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Title: Dinner

Artist: Artie Shaw

Genre: Jazz

Collections

Title: Hipster Halloween

Genre:

Title: 100 Swing for Dance

Genre: Jazz

Title: 40's Dance Party

Genre: Jazz

Title: 101 Big Bands Swing

Genre: Jazz

Title: Wartime Memories

Genre: Pop

Title: Perfect Swing

Genre: Jazz

Featuring albums

Title: Greatest Hits

Artist: Martha Tilton

Genre: Pop

Title: SELECTION

Artist: Supersongs

Genre: Jazz, Pop

Title: Hipster Halloween

Artist: Cab Calloway

Genre:

Title: Pure Jazz

Artist: Various Artists

Genre: Jazz

Title: Hipster Halloween

Artist: Various Artists

Genre:

Title: The Best of the Big Bands

Artist: Various

Genre: Jazz

Title: Big Band Bash

Artist: Various Artists

Genre: Jazz

Title: The Gatsby Era

Artist: Various Artists

Genre: Jazz

Title: Jazz Vocalists

Artist: Various Artists

Genre: Jazz

Title: Brooklyn Boogie

Artist: Various Artists

Genre: Jazz

Genres