For my research paper, I've been studying the life and times of three great clarinetist bandleaders. Among them (Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman) Artie has been the most intriguing. This isn't because the other two are lesser musicians or made inferior music, or even that their lives were less interesting (all three were fantastic musicians who had real success, and created lasting legacies.) Shaw is interesting because I can't figure him out.
I'm halfway through his autobiography, The Trouble With Cinderella. He was a smart man. I mean this in the intellectual sense. His thought process was well-defined and philosophical, and he had made a commitment to learning.
What I've been after since I started reading about him is: Why did this saxophone player suddenly decide to become one of America's greatest clarinet players? He was, in the beginning of his playing career, hired for his saxophone skills, and was, at best, a mediocre clarinetist.
Finally, I picked up a copy of Gunther Schuller's excellent book The Swing Era and was happy to find that Schuller was wondering the exact same thing. In fact, one of the first things Schuller has to say about Shaw is how odd it was that Shaw made the decision to bring his clarinet playing skills up to par with his rival Benny Goodman. (Turns out he practiced like a mad man in order to bring his clarinet skills up to par, but it still isn't completely clear to me as to why he chose against his saxophone.)
Goodman's band, at that time, was clearly the superior in swing. Goodman was the King of Swing, after all. Shaw had assembled and dissolved numerous versions of at least 8 bands between 1936 and 1955 (he was never satisfied with how they sounded.) He finally got a break in 1939, when Goodman had taken some months off to reorganize. This meant, according to Schuller, that Shaw had no real competition for several months.
Goodman and Shaw were finally on even ground. But it was temporary.
Tune in next time...
(yes, it's a cliffhanger)
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