Artie Shaw & The Era Of The Big Band Music

[Guest rohale]

In late December one of the true legends of jazz music Mr Artie Shaw died at the age of 94 in Los Angeles. The King Of Swing as he was commonly remembered as was a true pioneer of his day. He was right up there with the likes of Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Count Basie. He left the music business in 1949 citing creative differences with management and he simply disappered from the public limelight. Artie Shaw tried to make a comeback in 1983 with his old band, but to no avail. He didn't feel that he could recreate the magic again and simply put his foot down and ended his career. His legacy is time honored and classic. Some would say he retired too soon, but he did it and never looked back.

 

Over the Christmas holidays, I had the opportunity to spend some with my father. During the second world war, american jazz music was tremendously popular in Europe and particularily England. My father was a teenager during this time frame. He remembers what it was like being a teenager and listening to this form of music every night. He loved it back then and still does to this day. In those days he purchased countless records for three shillings a piece. In the beginning of this year, I mentioned to him about the passing of Artie Shaw. One day we drove up to my late grandparents cottage in Cornwall, one of the nice things we did was look for some of my dad's old records. We managed to find a few and we played them on an old turn table. It was very peaceful and soothing listening to these old records. The song that really captured my imagination was an old Frank Sinatra song " I'll Never Smile Again " featuring the Pied Pipers and orchestrations conducted by Tommy Dorsey. It's been ages since I've listened to that song, let alone that form of music.

 

The first time I ever listed to jazz was in 1985. I was a young kid and one night my mum had turned on the radio and she was trying to catch a local station in London called LCM. I remember the host of the programme decided to play Frank Sinatra's " New York, New York ". I had never heard of it. In the process I absolutely loved it. I dont remember the host of the radio programme anymore, but what I remember the most was his remarks about this type of music doesn't get the attention of television advertisers anymore. Over time I developed a fondness for jazz. I grew up on the New Wave Music, but jazz is what always makes me smile more than any other form of music.

 

In the last few years, I've been listening to the likes of Artie Shaw and Ella Fitzgerald. In a way, it's a shame that radio across Europe and North America are cutting back on playing what I feel is one of the best forms of American Music ever created in the 20th century. One thing is definitely for sure, we'll never see the likes of Artie Shaw and his contemporaries and the form of music that they created over sixty years ago ever again.

 

Rohale

[+ deej]

I wouldn't say Artie Shaw typifies jazz, but big band certainly.

 

That was an era that will never be duplicated. Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, all of them ... truly working an art form that simply no longer exists.

 

I grew up listening to my parents' recordings. (Even 78rpm records.)

 

My father and I had a little cross-generation bonding moment when I (a teenager) was grooving to Bette Midler's first hit, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and he hauled out the Andrews Sisters version.

 

People think "boy bands" are a modern phenomenon. Anyone remember the Everly Brothers? (Or going back quite a ways, the Ink Spots?)

 

If you want a little bit of a "way back" experience, get any "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy" CD. (Their Christmas CD is a *hoot*!) They're doing it right.

[bigguyinpasadena]

Rohale although I am a little young(45) to have any reason to listen to Big Band and swing music I enjoy them greatly along with a genre called "the great American songbook"and of course showtunes.

I also enjoy much earlier music-music of the 20's and 30's-which is even hardier to find on the radio.

Peter Mintum and some other afficianados used to have a great station in San Francisco which would play some wonderful eclectic music,now gone.

Might I suggest satalite radio.They have a couple of stations that broadcast "old timey music" and you do not have to listen to the horrid announders most of these stations use.

[Luv2play]

Big band music has never been my thing but I do love the great jazz singers from that era such as Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. I also enjoy reading very much and was interested to learn about Artie Shaw's private life when I read the autobiography of Ava Gardner, who was once married to Artie.

 

In her account, Artie was depicted as a bookish intellectual who openly ridiculed Ava's admittedly limited education and knowledge of weighty issues. Ava was strictly a party girl and her marriage to Artie was a disaster. Of course, Ava had disastrous hook-ups with other men as well such as Frank Sinatra (their fights were legendary).

 

Although I don't go to see Hollywood movies anymore, I would like to see the Aviator since I understand it features some of the great music of that era. (Ava also is part of the scene as she had an affair with Howard Hughes.)

[OneFinger]

I personally don't listen to anything written after Lawrence Welk stopped doing live TV shows. Artie Shaw and the Big Band era is some of the best music around. ;-)

 

Is my age showing?? :+

[+ deej]

>Is my age showing?? :+

 

Just a bit. :-)

 

But I haven't listened to popular music since 1975, so I'm right along with you there.

[Bilbo]

Two or three years ago I did a show here in Houston with this marvelous actress who was in a group who went Swing dancing together. There were several straight bars where you could go, at least one night a week, to do it. So those here who think that they are too young to be into Swing music might be dating themselves the other direction. At least around here.

[bigguyinpasadena]

Yeah,we have a bar here-The Derby-that has Swing Dancing a couple of nights a week,and they get a very energetic young crowd(lots of hotties)but the attendance for these nights has been slipping.

I love hot young guys in those zoot suits-it really puts the "swing"into swing dancing!

[+ friendofsheila]

You can hear a lot of stuff like this on an internet radio station called "Stay Tuned America" which features nothing but Big Bands, vocalists of that era, with the occasional old-time drama/comedy programs.

 

I've been waiting for something like this since KGRB/KBOB went off the air in LA about a zillion years ago. The internet's good for something besides sex!

 

See http://staytunedamerica.swcast.net/