- Sweet Adeline
- Afraid to Dream
- Chant
- The Blues
- Shoot the Likker to Me, John Boy
- Indian Love Call
- Any Old Time
- Non-Stop Flight
- Softly As in a Morning Sunrise
- Rosalie
- Pastel blue
- Traffic Jam
- Frenesi
- Gloomy Sunday
- Summit Ridge Drive
- Star Dust
- Dr Livingstone I Presume
- Concerto for Clarinet
With Tony Paster on vocals
as well as tenor sax, this is very typical
of the Artie Shaw band of this time. It was
very precise and neat, but it could swing
and the leaders clarinet was always the outstanding
solo instrument. I am sure that a lot of these
tracks would not have been Shaw’s first choice
to preserve for posterity, the requirements
of the record companies for ‘hits’ is obviously
a strong influence. Even on the more commercial
tracks however, the class of the Shaw clarinet
playing shines through like a beacon.
Billie Holliday’s distinctive
voice is heard on Any Old Time, to hire a
black singer with a white band in 1938 was
rebellion on Shaw’s part, but he was not the
kind of man to be dictated to by anyone. Non
Stop Flight and Softly demonstrate Shaw’s
complete mastery of the upper register on
the clarinet, which anyone who has played
the instrument knows is difficult to play
well and consistently.
In 1938 he decided that he
wanted the band to have more of a jazz feel
and he hired Buddy Rich to play the drums
and Georgia Auld on tenor sax, up to this
time the ultra smooth Tony Pastern had been
the main sax soloist Auld was much more an
out and out jazzer.
Pastel Blue written jointly
by Shaw and trumpeter Charlie Shavers has
an Ellingtonian Fell about it, and once again
Artie demonstrates his control of the high
register, finishing the piece on a high C,
a note many people can only get on a good
day! Traffic Jam demonstrates just how the
band could swing and it is to my mind the
best track on the album with Rich propelling
the band on to great things.
On later tracks the band
is heard with a string section, something
Artie always coveted and there is also Summit
Ridge Drive and Dr Livingstone from the Gramercy
Five which was Shaw’s answer to the Benny
Goodman Quintet.
Who was the best out of Shaw
and Goodman? I really don’t know, they were
the two upstanding clarinet players of the
era! The record finishes with the classic
Concerto for Clarinet, which every budding
clarinet player aspires to play.
Despite the commercial limitations
imposed on some of Shaw’s work here, he comes
through as one of the greatest jazz clarinet
players the world has ever produced.
Don Mather
CD Reviews
NAXOS JAZZ LEGENDS 8.120802
