Artie Shaw, Big Band Leader, Dies at 94

The New York Times ^ | December 30, 2004 | The New York Times

[Eagle9]

rtie Shaw, the jazz clarinetist and big-band leader who successfully challenged Benny Goodman's reign as the King of Swing with his recordings of "Begin the Beguine," "Lady Be Good" and "Star Dust" in the late 1930's, died yesterday at his home in Newbury Park, Calif. He was 94.

He apparently died of natural causes, his lawyer, Eddie Ezor, told The Associated Press.

In the Royalty of Swing

By JOHN S. WILSON

Artie Shaw's virtuosity on his instrument, his groups' highly original arrangements and his explosively romantic showmanship made him one of the most danced-to bandleaders of swing and one of the most listened-to artists of jazz. He quit performing in 1954 , but the many re-releases of his discs, a ghost band, and his informed but often sardonic comments on music and many other subjects kept him in the public ear.

Although his musical career closely paralleled that of Benny Goodman, his archrival, who died in 1986, the two men had little in common in their approaches to music.

"The distance between me and Benny," Mr. Shaw said several years ago, "was that I was trying to play a musical thing, and Benny was trying to swing. Benny had great fingers; I'd never deny that. But listen to our two versions of 'Star Dust.' I was playing; he was swinging."

Mr. Shaw impressed and amazed clarinetists of all schools. Barney Bigard, the New Orleans clarinetist who was Duke Ellington's soloist for 14 years, said he considered Mr. Shaw the greatest clarinetist ever. Phil Woods, a saxophonist of the bebop era, took Charlie Parker as his inspiration on saxophone, but he modeled his clarinet playing on Mr. Shaw's. John Carter, a leading post-bop clarinetist, said he took up the instrument because of Mr. Shaw.

And in 1983, when Franklin Cohen, the principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra, was to be featured playing Mr. Shaw's Concerto for Clarinet, he listened to Mr. Shaw's recording of the work and said he found his playing unbelievable.

"Shaw is the greatest player I ever heard," he said. "It's hard to play the way he plays. It's not an overblown orchestral style. He makes so many incredible shadings."

Mr. Shaw and Mr. Goodman were born a year apart (Goodman in 1909; Mr. Shaw on May 23, 1910); both had Jewish immigrant parents and grew up in the ghettos of major American cities. Mr. Shaw grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Goodman on the west side of Chicago. They began playing professionally as teenagers, and by 1926 they were both far from home performing with major bands of the day: Goodman in Venice, Calif., with Ben Pollack; Mr. Shaw in Cleveland with Austin Wylie.

In the Depression era, they settled in New York City and were the top two choices for the woodwind sections of radio-network and recording-studio orchestras. Frequently, they sat side by side in these ensembles.

By then, however, Mr. Shaw had decided music was a dead end. He intended to be a writer, and he had become a voracious reader. At band rehearsals, his music rack often held a book he was reading along with the compositions he was playing.

But his interests reverted to music after he was asked to play at a concert at the Imperial Theater in New York in May 1935. It was called a swing concert, and it included well-known swing bands like the Casa Loma Orchestra and the bands of Tommy Dorsey and Bob Crosby. Although Mr. Shaw was not yet known to much of the public, he was asked to put together a small group to play while the band onstage was changed.

"Just for kicks, I thought I'd write a piece for clarinet and string quartet, plus a small rhythm section," Mr. Shaw recalled. "Nobody had ever done that, sort of a jazz chamber-music thing."

An Instant Hit

His Interlude in B flat brought down the house. The audience refused to stop applauding, but Mr. Shaw had nothing else to play because this was the only thing he had written for the group. Finally, they played it again.

On the basis of this success, he was urged to form a band. He was not interested until he learned that with a successful band he could earn as much as $25,000 in six months, which was the amount he needed to complete his education.

The band he formed was an enlargement of the group he had used at the concert: a string quartet and his clarinet, with one trumpet, one saxophone and a rhythm section. But when he arrived in the real world of dance halls and nightclubs, he found himself bucking a tide that clamored for what he later described as "chewing drummers and loud swing fanaticism." So he formed a new band with the same instrumentation as Goodman's, promising it would be "the loudest band in the whole damn world."

With the new ensemble, he got a new name. Originally named Arthur Arshawsky, he had already shortened that to Art Shaw professionally. But when he became a bandleader on radio, there were complaints that an announcement of his name sounded like a sneeze. So he made one more change, to Artie Shaw.

As this band developed during a long run at the Roseland-State Ballroom in Boston, the original concept changed to a concentration on smoothly swinging treatments of the music of Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Vincent Youmans and others.

What 'The Beguine' Began

This new concept was epitomized in an arrangement by Jerry Gray, a violinist in Mr. Shaw's original string-quartet band, of "Begin the Beguine." Released in the fall of 1938, Mr. Shaw's recording of the Porter song became a classic of swing era jazz and allowed him to take over the swing band pre-eminence that Mr. Goodman had held for three years.

Mr. Shaw, however, was not prepared to put up with the demands of his fans, the bobby-soxers who mobbed him and tore his clothes, and whom he called morons. In December 1939, the tension finally made him walk off the bandstand at the Cafe Rouge of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City and disappear.

"I wanted to resign from the planet, not just music," he said later. "It stopped being fun with success. Money got in the way. Everybody got greedy, including me. Fear set in. I got miserable when I became a commodity."

He disappeared to what was then a little-known village in Mexico - Acapulco - where he was ignored for three months until he rescued a woman from drowning and reporters found out who he was. Then he returned home to Hollywood.

He owed RCA Victor six more recordings on his contract, so he formed a 31-piece studio band with 13 strings and recorded, among other things, a tune he had heard a group playing on a wharf in Acapulco. It was called "Frenesi" and, like "Begin the Beguine," it set off a new career for him just when he was trying to get out of an old one.

The success of "Frenesi" meant he had to form a traveling band once again. This one included a small group, the Gramercy Five, a variation of Goodman's small groups except that it added a jazz harpsichord, played by John Guarnieri.

Playing in the Jungles

In December 1941, Mr. Shaw flew to California and married Elizabeth Kern, the daughter of Jerome Kern, before enlisting in the Navy. After an initial period of anonymity in the service, he became a chief petty officer and was ordered to form a band. When he heard the band members he had been given, he went AWOL ("tacitly," as he said) in order to see the Secretary of the Navy, James V. Forrestal.

"I want to get into the war!" Mr. Shaw told him. "And if I have to run a band, I want it to be good."

Mr. Shaw left the meeting with permission to enlist a band to be taken to the Pacific. He recruited some of the best musicians he had worked with in civilian life, including Claude Thornhill, Dave Tough, Sam Donahue and Max Kaminsky. The band played up and down the Pacific, on tiny islands and in jungles. It played so relentlessly that in 1943 it was sent to New Zealand to rest, and a year later it was dissolved. Mr. Shaw received a medical discharge.

In the next 10 years he formed several short-lived bands, including one that played modern classical music in a New York jazz club called Bop City, and one that was in tune with the bebop era but that was scorned by audiences who had come to hear "Begin the Beguine" and "Frenesi."

In March 1954, after a playing with a small group at the Embers in New York, he announced his retirement at age 43. He never performed again, although in 1983 he formed an Artie Shaw Orchestra to play his old arrangements and some newer music. It was directed by Dick Johnson, a saxophonist and clarinetist, and Mr. Shaw appeared with it occasionally as a nonplaying conductor.

"I did all you can do with a clarinet," he said in a 1994 interview. "Any more would have been less."

A Writer's Ambition

Two years before his retirement, he wrote a well-received autobiography, "The Trouble With Cinderella."

He continued to write, and published two books of short stories, "I Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead!" and "The Best of Intentions," and had begun a three-volume novel about a troubled young musician. He became a cattle farmer, a producer and distributor of films, a successful competitor in shooting high-powered target rifles, and a lecturer on the college circuit offering a choice of four subjects: "The Artist in a Material Society," "The Swingers of the Big Band Era," "Psychotherapy and the Creative Artist" and "Consecutive Monogamy and Ideal Divorce," in which he presented himself as "the ex-husband of love goddesses and an authority on divorce."

His source material for this last lecture came from his experience with eight wives, who included, in addition to Miss Kern, three movie stars (Lana Turner, Ava Gardner and Evelyn Keyes) and an author (Kathleen Winsor, who wrote the 1940's best-seller "Forever Amber").

"People ask what those women saw in me," Mr. Shaw said in an interview with The New York Times. "Let's face it, I wasn't a bad-looking stud. But that's not it. It's the music; it's standing up there under the lights. A lot of women just flip; looks have nothing to do with it. You call Mick Jagger good-looking?"

All his marriages ended in divorce.

John S. Wilson, jazz critic of The New York Times, died in 2002.

[Eagle9]

Artie Shaw, may you rest in peace.

Artie Shaw - The Blue Room of The Hotel Lincoln, NYC - NBC Radio, December 6, 1938 (2.21 MB .mp3 file)

[squidly]

"I did all you can do with a clarinet," he said in a 1994 interview. "Any more would have been less."

Not bragging, just stating the facts. And succinctly too.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[JennysCool]

A true classic. What a talent -- and a character!

[leadpenny]

It wasn't until the Vietnam era that Armed Forces Radio catered to the younger generation. As a young soldier stationed in Munich, Germany in the early 60's, I listened to lots of music from the Big Bands played over the network. Didn't really appreaciate it then. Do now. Thanks for that link.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Weird - just yesterday I was trying to remember if Artie Shaw was still alive.

With all due respects to the deceased and as much as I love Shaw's music, Bennie Goodman will always be king.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Some amazing stuff found here at the official Artie Shaw website:

http://www.artieshaw.com/bio.html

My mom's sorority hired Artie Shaw's orchestra to play their spring formal in the 1940's. Her scrap book has the original dance bid card from the party.

[Argh]

From P. G. Wodehouse's The Mating Season, copyright 1949, a young Hollywood starlet is discussing with Bertie Wooster a visit to a little old lady movie buff in a small English town:

"...She knows exactly how many times everybody's been divorced and why, how much every picture for the last twenty years has grossed, and how many Warner brothers there are. She even knows how many times Artie Shaw has been married, which I'll bet he couldn't tell you himself. She asked if I had ever married Artie Shaw, and when I said No, seemed to think I was pulling her leg or must have done it without noticing. I tried to explain that when a girl goes to Hollywood she doesn't have to marry Artie Shaw, it's optional, but I don't think I convinced her. A very remarkable old lady, but a bit exhausting after the first hour or two..."

[Heatseeker]

Pretty wild when you outlive the guy who wrote your obituary. Sad also that I should be mourning, in my 5th decade, a guy who retired from music the year before I was born. RIP Artie.

[joesbucks]

In my early years, I yearned to be a radio DJ. I was working at an adult contemporary formated station and got bounced. My next gig was working on a station that played adult standards and I was named to host their weekend Big Band Show. I was a ripe 23 in 1976. And while I had heard some of the songs played by the Big Band artists such as Miller's In the Mood or Ellingotn's take the A train, my knowledge of that genre of music, was miniscule.

But I studied everything I could get my hands on and learned and listened. One of my favorite artists was Shaw. I had articles written about me and my knowledge of the music at such a young age (amazing who you can sound authoritative when scanning books and record jackets) and the local PBS station would invite me to pitch for their station when they aired Big Band themed shows.

I was reading earlier this week in our newspapers year in review that Billy May died earlier this year. My first thought was he had to be the last of that era to be with us. Why I forgot about Artie, I'll never know.

Yes, he was a bit eccentric, but man was his music just a little bit of heaven. RIP Artie.

[Route101]

Artie Shaw......My dad didn't admit it but he loved his music....As a kid, I heard those old 78's from the forties which our family still has. More recently, I came across Artie Shaw on the internet and downloaded some of his music....It's awesome how the digitally reproduced music compares to those scratchy 78's. God Bless you Artie Shaw.

[Petronski]

Arshawsky! I had no idea he was still alive.

My favorite of his is "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody." It's intoxicating, much like a pretty girl.

[Route101]

Artie must have been a nickname his band members gave him...

[LoudRepublicangirl]

I have loved Big Band since I was in Highschool and the kids my age thought I was nuts. I never stopped loving it and I loved to hear Artie Shaw's clarinet solos. I hope his last days were peaceful and painless for him.

[Route101]

Never heard anybody play the clarinet like this man did....

[Eagle9]

"I tried to explain that when a girl goes to Hollywood she doesn't have to marry Artie Shaw, it's optional, but I don't think I convinced her. A very remarkable old lady, but a bit exhausting after the first hour or two..."

Artie Shaw

[My Melody]

May Big Band Live Forever!!!

I recently read about Bob Snyder the `musical director` at the Grand Hotel Mackinac Island.

He has a Medley of Artie`s music on one his CD`s maybe more,

`Show Time at the Grand`

It is fabulous clarinet and sax!

Here is `Misty` if you have your sound on ~ this is also a story, a bit bitter~sweet, but a nice story.

http://www.dobhran.com/greetings/GRinspire257.htm

Happy New Year 2005!

Celebrate Life!

my melody

[Eagle9]

Here is `Misty` if you have your sound on ~ this is also a story, a bit bitter~sweet, but a nice story.

Thanks for the link, MM. I really enjoyed hearing "Misty", while reading that short, incredible story. I'll look for 'Show Time at the Grand'.
________________________________________________________

This new concept was epitomized in an arrangement by Jerry Gray, a violinist in Mr. Shaw's original string-quartet band, of "Begin the Beguine." Released in the fall of 1938, Mr. Shaw's recording of the Porter song became a classic of swing era jazz and allowed him to take over the swing band pre-eminence that Mr. Goodman had held for three years.
Artie Shaw - Begin The Beguine (383 KB .mp3 file)

He owed RCA Victor six more recordings on his contract, so he formed a 31-piece studio band with 13 strings and recorded, among other things, a tune he had heard a group playing on a wharf in Acapulco. It was called "Frenesi" and, like "Begin the Beguine," it set off a new career for him just when he was trying to get out of an old one.
Artie Shaw - Frenesi (362 KB .mp3 file)

And in 1983, when Franklin Cohen, the principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra, was to be featured playing Mr. Shaw's Concerto for Clarinet, he listened to Mr. Shaw's recording of the work and said he found his playing unbelievable.
Artie Shaw - Concerto For Clarinet (1.08 MB .mp3 file)
___________________________________________________

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

[Eagle9]

Correction - typo on the previous link to Artie Shaw - Frenesi (362 KB .mp3 file)

[My Melody]

Eagle9 wow ~ you chose the very Best songs!

These three are just a wonderful Tribute to Artie and a Great introduction if there is anyone who has not heard.

"Diga Diga Doo" You brought LIFE into the room here! "Everythings Jumpin!"

I forget which tract those are on, aren`t they fun though! One of my personal favorites beyond the three you chose is "Moon Glow"


There is a nice rendition of that in the old movie "PICNIC" 1956? Kim Novak William Holden ~ thats another Thread... `movies`

`Whats This Thing Called Love` didn`t Billy Holiday sing this on Artie`s song? and Helen Forest on 'Deep Purple`

`My Blue Heaven` `Stardust` `It Had to Be You`

`I Get a Kick Out of You` thats a happy song! and `Anniversary Song` is nice and `Autumn Leaves`

...a person could just dance all night here.

Thank you so much Eagle9, you could have a Big Band party Every weekend! Bring them All in! Artie`s smiling ~

To ARTIE

To Happy Music Forever

You made the Clarinet talk and Anyone who can do this with a musical instrument is Gifted and Talented and should Never be forgotten.

God Bless You Artie for making true Music and for making people Happy.


BEGIN the BEGUINE ~ ~ ~

Skoll!

`2 0 0 5`



ps; I think I lost an earlier post ~ this might turn up twice worded different by morning! I`m just learning about posting and I don`t think I hit the right button!

[Eagle9]

My Melody - thanks for your reply. Your enthusiasm made me want to undertake a mission -- post links to all the classic songs you mentioned (all are favorites of mine). Then, laziness set in ...

I'm glad you enjoyed those songs. Music from that era, especially Big Band swing and the romantic ballads by all the Torch singers, is intoxicatingly mesmerizing.

One of my personal favorites beyond the three you chose is "Moon Glow".

My favorite is the Morris Stoloff conducted version from the movie. Kim Novak was irresistibly stunning ...

...a person could just dance all night here ... you could have a Big Band party Every weekend!

Oh, I do! Drop by anytime. I live in a van, down by the river ...       LOL !!

Here's one more Artie Shaw set for you.

[My Melody]

Riotous Laughter here Eagle,

`Mission` you`re `Impossible` ;-)

Oh, that river you stay at, might this be the Salina? About 90 miles north of Wichita?

neewollaH!

Is this Kansas?

hardeee har harrr ;)
you are a natural comedian!


btw, the Orchestra Morris Stoloff on `Moon Glow` for the movie Picnic This one is my favorite piece of work. Thank you for sharing this.

Have you listened to others? This one was done in the studio,I think they called it a lush studio sound -track which created that special sound effect like that of an old victrola playing. I love that sound. I had wondered for years how that soundtrack differed so from others.

PICNIC will be airing on T C M Friday 3:30 pm ET 2/4/05

and again on Sunday 3/6/05 12-pm ET< "might check that time zone again"

Could post Big Band movie and Specials here too. A thought.

You could have this so filled, even if it is in an archive, what a fun Place to come to write or read or listen! I like new and old special places. This one is just different! I can feel it inside. It is nice here.

Have I convinced you yet?

Others might visit if they enjoy Big Band. They will find their way through others.

Artie enjoyed life quiet too. You won`t need to leave your river too often. LOL

Eagle`s list ;) maybe when some of the laziness wears off?

Begin the Beguine!
Diga Diga Doo
Anniversary Song
I Get A Kick out of You
Autumn leaves
Too Marvelous For Words
These Foolish Things
My Blue Heaven
Deep Purple
Everythings Jumpin!
*StarDust*
Whats This Thing Called Love
MOON GLOW it`s my favorite.


I believe Music effects us in so many ways.


If we laughed really hard at least once every day and listened to the music that we are so drawn to, music that our heart and soul resonates with, would we all be

`Dancing on the Ceiling?`

...one more to the list?

You are very funny Eagle! I burst into riotous laughter over your last post!

Laughter is the Best!

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn`t people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them? Rose K.

I`m coming back!

Begin the Beguine ~


Big Band Swing ~ ~ ~

Do you ever hear a tune playing in your mind, sudden like? I hear one now...it is very clear getting stronger, it is whistling that I hear, it is Bridge Over the River Kwai ! Why do you suppose? Why its the entire Orchestra playing ~

I knew this place was Special. :)

Good Night and God Bless *

My Melody

[My Melody]

~ Artie Shaw ~


"`Swing` is an adjective or a verb not a noun. A jazz musician should swing. There is no such thing as a `swing band` in music"


"There`s such a cynicism about the phrase `I laughed all the way to the bank` It`s as though money is what you`re doing, rather than playing music. If you`re playing a money game, why not get into banking?"


"Somebody asked me once, `Do you think that swing will ever come back?` And I said, `Do you think the 1938 Form will ever come back?`"


"Dance music - as I keep saying, you can dance to a windshield wiper...a windshield wiper that`s fairly steady gives you a beat and all you need is an out of tune `Play Me Melancholy Baby` and you`ve got dance music."


"I can`t understand the guys who just have to have your autograph. I asked one of them `what do you do when you get home, take it out
and look at it?"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~ Charlie Parker ~

"Music is your own experience, your thought, your wisdom. If you don`t live it, it won`t come out of your horn. They teach you there`s a boundary line to music. But, man, there`s no boundary line to art."


I kept thinking there`s bound to be somethings else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn`t play it."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That is a very profound statement.

How many times has a `known tune` come onto our minds and we try to sing or hum or whistle it or try to play it but it just won`t quite come out. It`s like our minds have chamber doors.

Begin the Beguine ~

my melody

[Senator Pardek]

Told you!

[Eagle9]

~ Charlie Parker ~

"Music is your own experience, your thought, your wisdom. If you don`t live it, it won`t come out of your horn. They teach you there`s a boundary line to music. But, man, there`s no boundary line to art."


I kept thinking there`s bound to be somethings else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn`t play it."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That is a very profound statement.

How many times has a `known tune` come onto our minds and we try to sing or hum or whistle it or try to play it but it just won`t quite come out. It`s like our minds have chamber doors.

Begin the Beguine ~

my melody
________________________________________________________

Very profound, indeed.
Those 'known tunes' that come to mind, yet never can be fully recalled, can be haunting. I've often thought that they are a mixture of two or more melodies, so similar in composition that they've become blurred into an entirely new melody that isn't 'known' and can't be fully recalled, since it doesn't exist, except in the mind. In order to form its own identity, it needs to be 'played'.

Here's one that's very well known.
Artie Shaw & Helen Forrest - Deep Purple (382 KB .mp3 file)

[My Melody]

So very thought provoking ~ ~ ~




I discovered some beautiful creativity within your picture and in Artie`s, I would like to share.

They seem to be connected, different yet the same, briefly, as if in motion, creating a pattern like a dance, simpatico ~

Life is very beautiful ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ from ~ A Journey of Self Discovery

~ Artie Shaw on playing a Horn ~

"So you`re trying to play a horn, and there`s this

clumsy series of keys on a piece of wood and you`re

trying to manipulate them with the reed and the

throat muscles and what they call embouchure, you`re

trying to make a sound that no one ever got before,

or a combination of sounds creating ~ an emotion

finally.


It`s like asking a Poet how do you get this

combination? How did you get these words?

Well you do that in music. You`re trying to make

notes and make them come out in a way that moves you.

If it moves you, its gonna move others: If you know

its right and you feel: `This is what I meant`


That happens, but very rarely does it happen, and you

remember it for the rest of your life. What can I

say, it`s the most exuberant experience you can have!

It beats Great food! It beats Anything!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Artie ~

"I could never understand why people wanted to dance to my music ~

I made it good enough to listen to.


I`m sorry Artie, I won`t be very noisy here. I will learn how to sit still and `listen` but when a certain song comes on, may I just dance a `little` bit? _-_-_- because you make my feet want to get up and Dance ~ melody *


Artie ~

"I`ve lived for a long time and I`ve learned a

few things that I`m passing on."


Thank you Artie,

Your 94 years of life has so much to teach.
There is so much much more ~ I want to talk about

`your Writings`!


Good night *

Good night eagle *

[My Melody]

~ Deep Purple ~



When the deep purple falls ~

Over sleepy garden walls

And a star begins to flicker in the sky

Through the mist of a memory

You wander back to me

Breathing my name with a sigh ~




In the still of the night

Once again I hold you tight

Though you`re gone

Your love lives on when moonlight beams



And as long as my heart will beat

Lover we`ll always meet

Here in my deep purple dreams

Here in my deep purple dreams



1933

Purple Dream

Peter De Rose wrote this as a piano instrumental.

It was his biggest hit.


1934 The Paul Whiteman Orchestra had it scored,

still an instrumental.

1939 Mitchell Parish added the lyrics.


When the Larry Clinton Orchestra recorded it with

vocal Bec Waln, it became a huge hit.


It has been said that Babe Ruth the great

American Baseball player, loved this song.

De Rose played it for the Babe at each of his

Birthday parties over the last ten years of his

life.


Sometimes I find that the more quiet the

`sound`

I can smell Lavender, Artie

I can hear Deep Purple


my melody *

[dennisw]

btttttttt

[Eagle9]

Thanks for the history of "Deep Purple". It's a favorite of mine.

Artie Shaw with Billie Holiday - Any Old Time

Artie Shaw - Diga Diga Doo

Artie Shaw - What Is This Thing Called Love

Artie Shaw - Stardust

Artie Shaw - Moonglow

Artie Shaw - My Blue Heaven

[shibumi]

This will probably get only passing notice, while human debris like Yessir Assfat and Susy Sontag are eulogized.

Sad.

[Eagle9]

One more ....

Artie Shaw - Everything Is Jumpin'

[My Melody]

~ Stardust ~

Originally written as `Star Dust`

(1929)

Words by Michael Parish

Music by Hoagy Carmichael


And now the purple dusk of twilight time

Steals across the meadows of my heart

High up in the sky the little stars climb

Always reminding me that we`re apart



You wander down the lane and far away

Leaving me a song that will not die

Love is now the stardust of yesterday

The music of years gone by




Sometimes I wonder why I spend

The lonely night dreaming of a song

The melody haunts my reverie

And I am once again with you

When our love was new

And each kiss an inspiration

But that was long ago

Now my consolation

Is in the stardust of a song



Beside the garden wall

When stars are bright

You are in my arms

The nightingale tells his fairy tale

A paradise where roses bloom

Though I dream in vain,

In my heart it will remain

My stardust melody

The memory of love`s refrain



Originally written as `Star Dust`

1929

Charted 1930 by Irving Mills # 20

Charted 1931 by Isham Jones # 1

Bing Crosby # 5

Louis Armstrong # 16

Wayne King # 17

Lee Simms # 20


Charted 1935 by Jimmy Luncford #10

Charted 1936 Benny Goodman # 2

Tommy Dorsey # 8


Charted 1939 by Sammy Kaye # 16



* Charted 1941 by ARTIE SHAW # 2 *


Tommy Dorsey # 7

Glenn Miller # 20


Charted 1943 Brian Elliot # 18

Tommy Dorsey # 23


Charted 1957 Billy Ward and his Dominoes featuring Jackie Wilson
# 12


Charted 1962 by Frank Sinatra


Charted 1964 Nino Temple and April Stevens # 32


I think of Willie Nelson and also Stevie Holland, this song is so beautiful.

Artie, no one can speak the words like you can through your clarinet, no one, and I`m

`listening`

my melody *

[My Melody]

Featured Book:

Artie Shaw: His Life and Music

http://jazzreview.com/bookreviewprint.cfm?ID=261

[Eagle9]

This link is to a web site that has a jukebox featuring big band era greats like Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa, Les Brown, Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton, George Shearing, and several others. The names at the top of the page are links to change the content of the jukebox to different artists' songs. There are 25-30 songs for each artist on compressed .mp3 files, suitable for anyone using a 56k dial up connection. It's set for Artie Shaw -- scroll down to see the his list of 29 available songs in the jukebox. Click a title and enjoy great music of a different era.

Tuxedo Junction Jukebox - Artie Shaw

The home page for that jukebox is linked below. It has music of the big bands to present day jazz that begins playing automatically when you visit this site. It's also suitable for 56k dial up connections. I let it play for several hours one night and never heard the same song twice. All songs played were exceptionally great selections of jazz, mainly from the 1930s through the 1940s. Most were instrumental, with a good mix vocals included.

Tuxedo Junction - Page 1

[wolficatZ]

There are some big band streams at shoutcast too..

http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=big+band&numresult=25

[Eagle9]

There are some big band streams at shoutcast too..

Thanks, I'll try that. I usually listen to music, mainly jazz, on my home stereo but since I have good computer speakers/sound card I like to hear a mix from the big band era. I have some CDs of the biggest names of that era but most of my jazz CDs are from the 1950s "cool jazz" small groups to present day small group jazz.