Artie Shaw dies at age 94

[neveronfriday]

Thanks for posting that piece!

[neveronfriday]

Cary Ginell

Isn't that the guy that co-authored the Terry Gibbs autobiography? The guy with a kazillion records and the one heavily into western swing?

Or am I getting this mixed up somehow?

Edited January 10, 2005 by deus62

[mmilovan]

It can be, don't know exactly! Text was from 78online list, dedicated to collecting and remastering old records...

[garthsj]

This letter was posted on the Jazz West Coast list today. I thought that many of you would be interested:

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 14:52:58 -0500

From: "Wayne L. Wright"

Subject: Fwd: Artie Shaw Funeral

Just got back from Artie Shaw's funeral, which was held indoors in

the chapel of the Pierce Brothers Mortuary in Westlake Village because of

the pouring rain outside. Services were supposed to be public and held at

graveside, but because of the weather, guests were limited to family,

friends, press, and a few acquaintances (that's where I came in). It was a

nice service, filled with funny stories, "Artie-isms," and of course, music.

The coffin was flanked by an early photo of Artie at the beginning of

his career and a more recent picture of Artie in his library, looking

either pensive or annoyed. Both of these pictures were included in the

program. If anyone is interested in scans of these, I'll be glad to send

them as an attachment to whoever wants one.

There was also the award presented by the NEA to Artie on Friday and

a framed letter of congratulations from President Bush, dated November 30,

2004. There was a succession of speakers at the service, which was led by

Larry Rosen, Artie's longtime secretary. As he introduced each speaker, we

got an impression of a man who was not a curmudgeon, but someone who was a

Renaissance Man, a true genius, and a perfectionist, expecting no more than

the same from people he knew. His motto: "Good enough is not good enough"

sums up his sometimes abrasive personality and mindset. Although there were

many funny stories told, I couldn't commit all of them to memory, but here

are a few highlights:

The man whose job it was to catalog Artie's massive collection of over

10,000 books reported inscriptions in the front of three books in the

library. One was by Albert Einstein, one by Sigmund Freud, and one by

another famous author, whose name escapes me now. The handwritten

inscription in the front of the Einstein book read: "To Artie Shaw, with

profound admiration and respect." In the Freud book, the inscription read,

"To Artie Shaw, with profound admiration and respect." Not only did the

third book have the exact same words, but the cataloguer noticed that the

handwriting was the same on all three. He asked Artie about it and Artie

replied that he had written them himself, to identify the books in case

they were ever stolen. As we speak, Artie's book collection is still at his

house. The shelves are reportedly completely full and stacks of books are

on the floor and even piled on the stairs of his staircase.

Musician Tom Rainier chose to play two musical selections, which were

played on Artie's own boom box that was brought to the chapel. One was a

1938 radio broadcast of Artie's hot big band playing a song that I believe

was called "Everybody's Jumpin'." Artie wanted that played because it was

five minutes long and gave the soloists a chance to spread out (Artie hated

most of his studio sessions because of the restrictions in time). Artie

took two choruses, another was by Georgie Auld, one by Tony Pastor and I

couldn't identify the others. The other song was the result of an

interesting experiment in which Rainier took selected snippets of Artie's

playing, reassembled them and inserted them into a new recording of Johnny

Mandel's "The Shadow of Your Smile."

The intent was to predict what Artie would sound like if he had

continued to play after 1954. The result was actually pretty amazing. Buddy

DeFranco finished off the piece with an Artie-esque 8-bar cadenza that

brought tumultuous applause throughout the chapel. Artie himself had

admired the work and approved of it. Then Dick Johnson, leader of the Artie

Shaw Orchestra for the past 20 years, played a poignant a cappella

performance of "I'll Be Seeing You."

Eighty-five-year-old comedian Red Buttons talked about meeting Artie for

the first time. "It was during the War," he remembered, "and we were both

in uniform. Artie was in his Navy uniform and I was the bellhop at the

Astor hotel." Buttons recalled that Shaw's first words upon meeting him

were, "What kind of a name is 'Red Buttons'? Who in their right mind would

give anyone that name?" To which Buttons reported that his real name was

Aaron Schwat, to which Shaw immediately responded by calling Buttons "The

Sultan of Schwat."

Sid Caesar was scheduled to be there and speak but he couldn't make it

because of the rain. At that point, Larry asked if anyone else had anything

to say about their relationship with Artie and there were a succession of

very funny stories. I told of my nerve-wracking first broadcast with him in

2000 and then my final meeting with him in 2003 to discuss Bix

Beiderbecke's 100th birthday. Artie's admiration of Bix was not because of

the notes Bix played or his technique, it was the sound he produced on his

cornet. Artie rhapsodized about this sound and the fact that it could only

have come from Bix.

Above all, Artie admired the individual and hated when people said they

tried to play like Artie did. "Play like yourself," he'd say. When I asked

him to comment on Eddie Condon's oft-heard description of Bix's sound,

which was likening it to "a girl saying yes," Artie paused, shook his head

and said, "Poor Eddie...He must have been pretty hard up." The end of the

service came after the playing of Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me" as

sung by Lee Wiley, Shaw's favorite singer. It was an unusual recording,

recorded in 1939, in which Wiley was accompanied by Fats Waller on pipe

organ (Liberty Music Shop L-282).

[mmilovan]

Interesting interview with Shaw was published in "MOJO" magazine, about year or so. Artie spoke a lot about Basie, Lester, and it was always a pleasure to read something connected with this great musician.

But unfortunatelly, don't know exact No./date of issue (if anyone collecting this, there it can be checked) - how dumb I was not to buy it, then.

Edited January 13, 2005 by mmilovan