SWING IS A VERB, ARTIE SHAW, JAZZ MOODS--HOT

Married eight times, often to movie stars. Retired at the top of his Jazz career in 1954. Scholar, lecturer, artist, world class marksman, Artie Shaw fascinates the public. One wonders what took Sony BMG so long to add a few of his recordings to their Jazz Moods collection. Click here for more details about the entire Jazz Moods series.

These up-tempo selections from Shaw’s career do not disappoint. While one might note some Shaw favorites missing from the disk such as Stardust and Interlude in B Minor, as an intro to the best clarinet player of his era, the disc serves such a purpose well.

Classified as “hot” by the Jazz Moods series, the pace of these tunes will wear the listener out. All of the arrangements on these 14 tracks are tight, but for those who want to hear Shaw in all his perfect-pitch glory keep your ear’s tuned for the many solos. About 1:15 into EVERYTHING IS JUMPING, a solo by Shaw, standard fare by his measure, really kicks the track up a notch.

Not everything on this collection is full throttle. BEDFORD DRIVE slows it all down and has more pace than many of the others in the mix. I’d say its one of the most pleasing pieces on this collection.

Shaw’s fame must be seen in its historical context. His love of music and of Jazz, which he saw as the only truly American music, was only exceeded by his rancor toward the business. He never thought of himself as a performer, he thought of himself as an artist. He hated the trappings of his fame.

As Jazz evolved, he liked much of what bop did with the exception of its focus on what he called athleticism. Whoever plays the most notes the fastest is the best musician? Hardly. Such absurdities annoyed Shaw. Shaw was a connoisseur and it was his self-described perfectionism that led him away from the Clarinet toward a life of the mind as a writer.

Article Author: David Koehn

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