Georgie Auld 1949

[Larry Kart]

https://www.amazon.com/You-Got-Jumpin-GEORGIE-AULD/dp/B0009JOQ02/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519514497&sr=8-1&keywords=georgie+auld+you+got

Interesting boppish ten-piece band, recorded live and in decent or better sound. Personnel: Auld, Pete Terry, t. sax. Clint Neagley, alto,  Gerry Mulligan, b. sax, Neal Hefti, tpt., Billy Byers, trb., Jimmy Rowles, piano, Joe Mondragon, bs. Alvin Stoller, drms. Karl Kiffe, bongos. Hefti and Byers get a good deal of solo space -- both as good as I've ever heard them. Auld, of course, was a swinger.

I've wondered about this passage from Tom Nolan's book on Artie Shaw:

In Tom Nolan's Three Chords for Beauty's Sake, his biography of Artie Shaw, Nolan quotes Shaw on Auld:"At Buddy [Rich's] funeral [in 1987], I'm talking to Mel Brooks, outside the funeral home. And Georgie Auld—he turned out to be a fucking gangster, horrible guy—he comes up: 'You're fulla shit. You're fulla shit.' 'Wadya mean, George? Wadya talkin' about?' I said, 'Is that your considered opinion? Is there anything you want to add to that?'

"George was disappointed he wasn't called on to speak [at Buddy's funeral] and was very angry. 'You're fulla shit.' That's all he could say! Chagrin! What—I dunno, he identified himself with me, and he never could quite make it, as a star, you know, whatever it was. Angered him. Infuriated him. When I quit the music, man [in 1939], I gave him the band; I gave him my book. He could not make it work. He didn't have the quality that it took. Certain people don't."

Auld was a "horrible guy," who "turned out to be a fucking gangster"? Hmm. Well, Shaw for sure was a narcissistic asshole in the top class, in addition to being a great clarinetist. So who knows what's up here, if anything. Also, of course Auld couldn't make it work as the leader of Shaw's 1939 band after Shaw  quit;  no one could have. People wanted to see/hear Artie, not his band, fine as it still was.

 

[Big Beat Steve]

These tracks have been released before (in the same order) - on the "By George!" LP on Swing House SWH 25. Bought this secondhand at Mole Jazz in London some time in the 90s.

Nice music and IMO there is enough to appreciate in his 40s recordings or surviving airshots (as issued by Hep) on their own terms, regardless of whether Artie Shaw's shoes maybe were too big for him or not  - and as for the rest, I guess it's best to just focus on the music and not think too much about backstage and off-stage behavior. (In some cases where artists turn out to be pricks offstage you cannot help wondering what would even have come to light if there had been a #metoo then? Probably better not to know ... )

[Larry Kart]

Someone who knows where the bodies are buried agrees with me that Shaw was both a great musician and a narcissistic jerk but says that he'd be inclined to trust Shaw on Auld, though he adds that Auld was not a literal gangster as far as he knows, just "rough-edged." BTW, I may be getting hung up on the details of language (as I'm inclined to do) but what I especially like about that Buddy Rich funeral anecdote from Shaw is that when Auld made his angry remarks to him, Shaw was talking to Mel Brooks. That's my man Artie -- he had to be talking to someone special and throw that in.

BTW, can't recall the details, but when I read Nolan's Shaw bio I thought it had many dubious passages. Nolan also wrote a bio of detective writer Ross Macdonald (creator of private eye Lew Archer). Nolan seemed more at home dealing with noir fiction, but IIRC that book too had its dubious aspects. OTOH, the  writer who could fully capture both Artie Shaw the musician and Artie Shaw the multifarious man may not exist.

[Ted O'Reilly]

Just an odd-ball thought, Larry:  both Georgie Auld and Ross Macdonald were Canadian born, and both were known by pseudonyms.  Auld was born as John Altwerger, Macdonald as Kenneth Millar. 

Boy, we Canadians have to hide to get into the USA!

(When Shaw allowed Dick Johnson lead the Artie Shaw Orchestra in the early '80s, he came to Toronto for a gig the band did at the Royal York's Imperial Room, and I did an interview with him.  He was still VERY proud of himself.)

(Another quick memory of that...Johnson was a Brockton, MA native, with the broadest accent of the area you can imagine.  The story is that he phoned a musical supplies company to get covers for the band book.  You know, "The Artie Shaw Orchestra, led by Dick Johnson".  What arrived was "The Ottie Shore Orchestra, led by Dick Johnson".)

Edited February 25, 2018 by Ted O'Reilly
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[JSngry]

I'm still trying to figure out if Artie Shaw wore some kind of special shoes or something, and why did Georgie Auld try to wear them. I mean jeez, I no sooner would I have my private areas  in somebody else's underwear than I would my feet in their shoes, that's just....eeeeeeew. Was this some kind of orthopedic craze at the time, or just what?

[Larry Kart]

4 hours ago, Ted O'Reilly said:

Just an odd-ball thought, Larry:  both Georgie Auld and Ross Macdonald were Canadian born, and both were known by pseudonyms.  Auld was born as John Altwerger, Macdonald as Kenneth Millar. 

Boy, we Canadians have to hide to get into the USA!

(When Shaw allowed Dick Johnson lead the Artie Shaw Orchestra in the early '80s, he came to Toronto for a gig the band did at the Royal York's Imperial Room, and I did an interview with him.  He was still VERY proud of himself.)

(Another quick memory of that...Johnson was a Brockton, MA native, with the broadest accent of the area you can imagine.  The story is that he phoned a musical supplies company to get covers for the band book.  You know, "The Artie Shaw Orchestra, led by Dick Johnson".  What arrived was "The Ottie Shore Orchestra, led by Dick Johnson".)

I heard that Dick Johnson-led Shaw band that Artie had rehearsed -- extensively, I was told. The trumpets sounded like violins -- amazing. Only band that was at all similar that way in my experience was the Gerry Mulligan "Walk on the Water" band of the early '90s  (I think) that recorded "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You."

[optatio]

On 25.2.2018 at 6:21 PM, Big Beat Steve said:

These tracks have been released before (in the same order) - on the "By George!" LP on Swing House SWH 25. Bought this secondhand at Mole Jazz in London some time in the 90s.

Oh yes, Mole Jazz, I miss the greetings of the late Ed Dipple! Now spinning:

GEORGIE AULD: BY GEORGE! SWING HOUSE SWH 25 [1981]