Artie Shaw What Is This Thing Called Love

This collection of Artie Shaw big band recordings comes from his brief association with the Musicraft label. Having assembled and broken up several earlier units, this edition, heard in recordings made between 1945 and 1946, is more of an arranger's band than one that features many soloists, other than the leader. During this period of Shaw's career, he was constantly changing the instrumentation of his band and making personnel substitutions. Fellow Musicraft artist Mel Tormé and his group the Mel-Tones are added on some tracks, though this was a studio relationship exclusively and they were not a part of Shaw's organization. The innovative blend of strings, voices and brass in the swinging arrangement of "What Is This Thing Called Love" is the highlight of the vocal selections, along with an updated instrumental version of the clarinetist's earlier hit, "Begin the Beguine." The only reservation about this compilation is that several tracks are abruptly faded or even truncated.

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.

Artie Shaw - The Last Recordings, Volume 3 (1945-1949) {2CD Wyastone-Nimbus NI 2729~30 rel 2009}
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© 1945-49, 2009 MusicMasters / Wyastone / Nimbus | NI 2729~30
Jazz / Bop / Swing / Big Band / Clarinet

The material on CD 1 dates from the latter half of Artie Shaw’s career as a bandleader, which ended with his retirement in 1954. Always presenting tasteful and often unusually deep interpretations of big-band jazz and dance music, and featuring his exquisite and frequently profound clarinet improvisations, Shaw’s career climaxed in his rise to superstar status as the most popular musician in North America at the height of the Swing Era in 1939.

Artie Shaw - Self Portrait (2001) {5CD Box Set Bluebird 09026 63808 2 rec 1936-1954}
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© 1936-54, 2001 Bluebird / BMG | 09026 63808 2
Jazz / Bop / Swing / Big Band / Sweet Bands / Clarinet

As a rule, record companies don't give artists the chance to pick the songs when a boxed set is assembled. They might ask the person who writes the liner notes to interview the artist, or they might even have the artist write the liner notes. But the label, not the artist, usually chooses the material. Self Portrait is an exception; when this five-CD, 95-track boxed set was assembled in 2001, a 91-year-old Artie Shaw was given a rare chance to make the selections himself and comment on them. And for those who are seriously into the clarinetist, it is fascinating to see what he chooses. Self Portrait, which spans 1936-1954, contains most of his essential swing, era hits, including "Stardust," "Begin the Beguine," "Frenesi," and his ominous signature tune, "Nightmare."

This collection returns us to a time when the city of shanghai was a mecca of international sophistication and daring, and U.S. swing and jazz musicians of the classic era found a home amid the city's nightlife, which they shared with the best-known Chinese singers of the period. These discs mix great western musicians like Coleman Hawkins and Ella Fitzgerald (and some western artists like Sammy Kaye who were perhaps more popular than great) with Chinese cabaret singers who had crossover appeal for western ears.
Doris Day, Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and many others.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (a city that also saw the birth of another jazz piano great, Erroll Garner) Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa (1925-2002) counted among the most creative pianists of his generation, with a style that combined swing and bebop with innovative harmonies similar to those that characterized the playing of Lennie Tristano. Now mostly forgotten, Marmarosa played and recorded with such masters as Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Charlie Parker, Howard MacGhee, and Lester Young. This new 2CD Uptown label set, however, showcases him mostly in quartet (with Lucky Thompson on tenor sax), trio, and even solo formats. CD1 comprises various rarely head broadcasts, while CD2 is devoted to rare studio sides made for such obscure labels as Atomic and Down Beat.