Begin the Beguine
– mit Artie Shaw begann es
The image of Artie Shaw in the history of Jazz seems double-sidedly influenced by pre-judices. Since 1938 he has been internationally celebrated, mainly as an interpreter of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine," thereby having been labelled as a "commercially" oriented entertainment musician by purists. In spite of this cliché and his stylistically influential "Gramercy Five" and "Third Stream" recordings, this stamp could not be removed. He finally resigned, gave up his clarinet and wrote in his autobiography with resignation, "Not being allowed to experiment and grow [as an artist] I had to cut it [the clarinet]."
The article summarises first the life of Shaw and his ascent - next to Benny Goodman - as the most important clarinetist of the Swing Era. The musical development of the musican is shown through LP and CD recordings. His music lives through the tension between the intellectual forming of improvisation and emotionally-determined creativity. Shaw began as an autodidact, which explains his uncommon playing technique, the singular control of glissandi, the unconventional choice of range, the tonal shadings, maskings and phrasings. Shaw's working method in smaller groups took place, next to the usual preliminary agreements, without fixed written arrangements. This was verified by one of his sidemen, Danny (Daniel Bernhard) Banks, who lives in New York and was able to be interviewed during the preparation of this article. Shaw himself hinted, in an interview with Dan Morgenstern, "There was no written music. We'd sit down and rehearse, I'd play a riff, Hank [Jones] would say something - or Tal [Farlow], or Joe Roland or Joe Puma. That's the whole point about arranging; to make it sound improvised... I get awfully sick of people saying that I wrote my stuff out."
The previously unreleased aging recordings of Artie Shaw, which have come out in CD form, show his leading position among clarinetists in the 2nd half of the 1930's till 1954, as well as the timeless validity of his music. But the one-sided marketing forced him to work, since then, as a writer.