The last time we talked about Artie Shaw, he had finally topped Benny Goodman in the polls. Or at least was even with him.
Artie and his orchestra was still popular, don't get me wrong, but when compared to how Benny handled the music side, he made some unusual choices. He always seemed to be intent on getting strings (violins, etc) into his jazz bands. He was definitely interested in making his band sound different from any other jazz group and tried to incorporate more kinds of music than any other. Latin, Mexican, novelty, "savage" (not sure how else to describe this one, I think he was trying to get an African sound, even if it was hopelessly caricatured), and romantic strings. But he could swing, so it's unfortunate that he spent so much time trying to fight the popular band arrangement of the time.
He reassembled and reformed at least 8 different bands over the course of 4-5 years, which makes it clear that he was trying to do something, but wasn't able to achieve it. At least not to his satisfaction. It was this stop and start (and maybe his underlying distaste for fame and popularity) that ultimately undermined his attempt to surpass Benny.
In 1955 he gave it all up. Bandleading, clarinet, music, the fame, everything. He wanted to be a writer instead.
Artie was good at the clarinet. In some ways he may have been better than Benny, (I've been debating this over and over with myself. Who was the better player, really? I think I've decided that Benny was technically superior, but Artie knew how to play lyrically and took more musical risks) but Benny had a clearer idea about what he wanted to do and was better able to make it happen.
He is an enigma burrito. Con queso.
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