The Thing Called Love

What a fantastic "jazz piano trio" - yes George Mraz is truly a bassist delight, sympathetic, emotive, with improvised soloing thrown in. Virtuosic players all three, Billy Hart is one of the greatest drummers for modern jazz - creative, inventive, and progressive! Last but not least - the leader - Richie Beirach on piano - a consistently inventive pianist whose ability to play straight ahead or avant-garde and with lyricism makes him an original.

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.