Customer Reviews

King of the Clarinet 1938-39

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

[Important note: There is a mistake on the track listings above. The first CD obviously doesn't contain so many tracks! This is what is actually on the first CD: "Nightmare" "Rose Room" "Comes Love" "Carioca" "You're Mine You" "Go Fly a Kite" "Yesterdays" "Don't Worry About Me" "My Heart Stood Still" "Traffic Jam" "Melancholy Lullaby" "In the Mood" "Sweet Adeline" "Lover Come Back to Me" "Two Sleepy People" "I'm Coming Virginia" "One Foot in the Groove" "Just a Kid Named Joe" "Blue Interlude" "Day In, Day Out" "Leapin' at the Lincoln"]

A lot of shoppers might wonder what exactly this box set of three CDs from swing bandleader Artie Shaw actually contains. Here's the straight deal: these are recordings of live radio broadcasts of Artie Shaw and his Orchestra that were performed between November 1938 and November 1939. The broadcasts came from The Blue Room in the Hotel Lincoln in New York City, the Summer Terrace at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Roof in Boston, and the Café Rouge at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. (Trivia note: this is the hotel that hosted Glenn Miller's Orchestra for years, and lead to using the hotel's phone number, Pennsylvania 6-5000, as a name for one of their pieces.) Although recordings of live radio are sometimes inferior, this collection has superb sound and captures the Shaw band at its peak: relaxed, creative, and swingin'. You'll hear many classics in new versions, as well as some wonderful rarities. There are a couple of duds, as Artie Shaw himself admits, but even these are interesting!

The Artie Shaw Orchestra of 1938-1939 was the best band he ever assembled, and the most popular. This is the orchestra that recorded "Begin and Beguine," Shaw's best-selling record, and contained a line-up of astonishing musicians: Buddy Rich on drums, Tony Pastor on tenor sax and vocals, Georgie Auld on tenor sax, Helen Forrest on lead female vocals, and of course Shaw himself playing the most brilliant clarinet music you'll ever hear. The music on these recordings shows them powering at their best, and you can see why they became America's most popular band of the time.

The sound does contain ambient crowd noise and applause, but the music comes through clearly and powerfully: I have no hesitation recommending this for the sound quality. And there are so many surprises and joys waiting here for the Artie Shaw enthusiast, or anyone who loves big band jazz and swing. For example:

DSIC 1: A sensational recording of the jazz standard "Rose Room." Helen Forrest singing one of Shaw's popular records, "Comes Love." Tony Pastor's hilarious vocals on a little-know gem, "Go Fly a Kite." Another Helen Forrest stunner, "Melancholy Lullaby." A fun original Artie Shaw number, "One Foot in the Groove." The big surprise, though, is "In the Mood." This recording came before Glenn Miller's version, and it's a stunner: Shaw himself describes it as "a more sophisticated, torrid, Black beat. It's post-Fletcher Henderson...kind of Jimmie Lunceford-Chick Webby." You might not be able to listen to the Glenn Miller version after you hear this, it's that good!

DISC 2: The best disc -- so much is great here! Helen Forrest crooning on "Moonray." An amazing Artie Shaw original, "Man from Mars," which shows how incredible this band was. "St. Louis Blues," which sounds better than the studio recording the band made of it. Another funny vocal from Tony Pastor, "Put That Down in Writing." The fast-moving "Just You, Just Me." And tons more. Plus, you get to hear Artie Shaw briefly interviewed by the radio announcer (he sounds pretty eager to away!).

DISC 3: A great fast rendition of "It Had to Be You." A version of "Back Bay Shuffle" of which Artie Shaw says, "I like it better than the record [version] because the time (as opposed to the tempo) is better." Tony Pastor sings a great version of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." The disc ends on a furious foot-stomper, appropriately titled "Hold Your Hats."

The large book that comes with the set is jammed with information. There is commentary for each song, and quotes from Artie Shaw himself, who listened to these recordings and gave his own opinion on them. He is very candid, and dismisses many of the song as pop junk he was forced to play. About the lesser number "Summer Souvenirs," he comments, "Talk about sentimental drivel...a perfect example of what I mean by a sappy lyric. It's a typical example of the kind of [junk] we sometimes had to play." Concerning "I Haven't Changed a Thing," he says, "The tune is maudlin, it's a stupid melody, and a stupid lyric, but it was well done..." But he makes many wonderful comments on the superb numbers: "I always had the best vocalists. Helen is wonderful on this..." "We played every tune with integrity." "That was a hell of a beat. Yeah, that knocked me out. We're up and we stay there...right to the very end." (He's talking about "Hold Your Hats," by the way.) It's a great pleasure to have his commentary on his own music.

If you're new to Artie Shaw, you might want to get some of his studio recordings first, such as those available on the CD collections "Begin the Beguine" and "The Very Best of Artie Shaw." But you'll want to get this eventually. And Shaw's lovers can't miss this. Too many great treasures, and an awesome booklet loaded with Shaw's amazing personality.

Here's a chance to acquire sixty five of the absolute best of Artie Shaw's big band renditions of 1938-1939 (with vocalists Helen Forest and Tony Pastor). As you listen to these superbly recorded numbers, you gain a new appreciation for the craftmanship of the era and the frantic pace set by these artists, as evidenced by the fast tempo and pounding beat. This was the pre-WWII music that accompanied the fast dancing of the times. Just listening to this music produces a sense of the exhiliaration the dancers must have felt. Highly recommended.

I am a 17-year-old high school junior. I just want to say that this three CD collection of the Shaw man is one of the best collections of Shaw's music that I have heard. This collection can be played straight through with listening pleasure. And also, the 20-page booklet that comes with the collection is very informative and offers rare photos of the '38-'39 band. The vocals of Tony Pastor and the young Helen Forrest are very good, and the solos are very well done, with the solos by Shaw and Georgie Auld standing out the most. I recommend this collection to all big band enthusiasts, especially if you are a big Artie Shaw fan like I am.

Shaw's arrangements from this period have a clarity and transparency second to none. He also allowed the great soloists in his band plenty of important opportunities, and had the best of the girl vocalists, Helen Forrest, on the stand with the band enshrined here. Having directed performancs of some of these arrangements, I can assure you they are still powerful and exciting: One Foot In The Groove, for example, has such a natural, driving swing it could have been written yesterday.

Shaw himself is a miracle and perhaps one of the greatest clarinettists in every genre. You sometimes feel that every note he plays is a matter of life or death.

The sound here is "live," which means warts and all, but the results are that much more exciting and unpredictable than the studio equivalents, where they exist. This is the basic literature of the swing era, well documented and indispensable.

This collection is filled with terrific recordings from the late thirties and it's truly marvelous. The great Artie Shaw plays in a very modern way and there are some unforgettable vocals particularly from the gifted Helen Forrest. A treasure trove of music from a magical era which will never come again, this compilation belongs in every Big Band afficionado's collection!

Given, this collection is not intended to be a "Complete recordings..." set, but it sure would have been nice that if Hindsight Records was going to take the time issuing an anthology with the care that they have with this, then they would have at least put out all the material they have at their disposal and have previously issued on their LP issues, "The Uncollected Artie Shaw" volumes 1 through 5 as well as their double album "Artie Shaw - 22 original big band recordings. (Vols. 1 & 2 are on CDs.) Those albums (with the exception of the last one I mentioned) contained complete individual broadcasts, so the tunes were laid out in a logical and chronological order without anything missing. True, maybe it can be said you don't need umpteen versions of the band's theme ("Nightmare") opening and closing each broadcast, but you'd at least have everything that was once on the Hindsight LPs including many other tunes other than the band's theme that haven't been re-released on this set of CDs.

Musically though, this is the great Shaw band of 1938-1939 performing live as they did for crowds in person and who were listening in via radio. And the band is phenomenal. THIS is what you heard when you listened to Artie Shaw and his "Begin The Beguine band" that struck gold and transfixed Swing fans of 1938-39. This contains many tunes that weren't recorded for RCA/Bluebird at the time so will be new to the ears of Shaw fans that only know of Artie via the records he made. As for the tunes that were recorded for RCA and are represented in LIVE versions here, get ready for a ride!! In my personal opinion, the broadcast recordings are FAR better than the actual studio recordings because the band was doing its "THING" and musicians were only concerned with the "heat of the moment". So, yes, there is background noise from the crowd and maybe the studio-recorded versions are more "perfect", but the feel for the music and arrangements on these recordings is far less "stiff" than on any of the recordings they made in a studio. And it is all brilliantly brought to life here.

Other than hearing how the whole band altogether played live though, the single most important aspect of these recordings is the absolutely stunning musicianship displayed by Artie playing his clarinet. Forget for a moment that he drilled and rehearsed the band to perfection and that he played a major role in the writing of all the band's arrangements. His level of ability is readily apparent both as an accomplished technician of the Clarinet (there is virtually nothing that he cannot execute) as well as being a brilliantly creative improviser in the truest jazz sense - that demonstrates he was an endless font of lines and ideas and was playing in a manner that few musicians on virtually any instrument could match at the time (and most others, since). And yes, it bothers me when I hear how Benny Goodman was always so much "better" or "swung" so much harder than Artie. Well, as for the degree to which Benny's band "swung", yes it may be true that they did so more often than Artie's band did. Benny sought nothing beyond being a "hot" band. Artie knew that his band HAD to be "hot" but it was not the total emphasis. Anyway, listen to "Carioca" or "Man From Mars" on this set and tell me that Artie's band couldn't swing just as hard as Benny's when Artie wanted it to and the arrangements they played dictated that they do. Beyond that, I find it ironic that Artie's band seems to play with a much "gutsier" beat on the hard-swing numbers than Benny's band usually actually did. On the standards or ballads, Artie seems to have it all over Benny when it comes to expressing a simple melody and weaving it into something of sheer rhapsodic beauty. As for technical ability on the horn, Artie and Benny had it down, as equals. But it seems to me that Benny was never the poet, able to spin out the lines and variations that Artie was when it came to inspired creativity as an on-the-spot improviser. And these recordings bear that out in no uncertain terms.

5 Stars for the music and what's included, 1 Star for not putting in print everything they have issued before, and in chronological order. 3 Stars for the collection.

I just wanted to express my kudos to Hindsight records for releasing 3 great box sets of Artie Shaw, Harry James and also the fine broadcasts of Duke Ellington 1946-1947 collection.
It seems that copies are available at great prices here and this is not a review but an endorsement of all 3 sets as to quality and content.
All come with great notes and booklet, superb sound all done with integrity to the artist...
The radio broadcasts of Benny Goodman are found on Sony's 2 CD set which is also grand and for those collectors and lovers of big band it is welcome that this genre of music is still readily available with fine audio restoration.

OK, right off the bat I will say, I agree with the other reviewers in saying that this is GREAT music and remastered well. Very listenable. Clear not overly noise reduced, though there is a fair amount -- some recordings are a bit dark. A fair number of songs are edgy and shrill. But overall, a decent job for recordings of this age. Now, the appalling part -- these are not factory pressed CDs, instead they are burned CDR's.

I am VERY VERY disappointed to discover this, certainly I would have never suspect as such, as I see no mention to it, nor does the price reflect it. This is almost as much of a rip off as the banking scandal -- paying top dollar for 1 cent burned cd copies. This is extremely poor business practice and without notice or price reduction is simply robbery and fraud. BEWARE. and for collectors like me - CDR's are unreliable and are prone to failure/misread as they age - your only hope is to re-record these onto a "archival" type CDR and still you are not guaranteed satisfactory survival over time. On a side note, after re-recording mine, they sounded better.

I have always enjoyed the big band music but it is difficult to find any quality recordings since they were done so long ago with what we would now consider very poor equipment. I was hopeful with this set as well as the one for Harry James (both released by Hindsight Records, as a side note if you go to their web site you can order the same sets and save about $10 on each one, which is something I did not know at the time, which is another disappointment). The problem with both of these sets is not the music itself but the quality of the recording and the transfer to the digital format. These were done live in front of people who were talking, being served food and who were eating. At times these back ground noises come through. The set does say that it was recorded live; however, I did not realize how it would impact the listening experience. I have other live recordings and the background noise usually does not have this big of an impact.
The other issue is with the transfer of the audio onto a digital format. It maybe that the tapes were damaged but there are several times when the timing is effected. There are parts where it sounds like the tape itself has either been stretched or shortened. It can be very distracting.
If you go through each track one at a time and just select those in which the background noise is not that disruptive or the original tapes were not damaged than you can put together a fairly good set. The problem is that you will only end up with about one full CD worth of music for the price of 3 CDs. (again if I could have gotten it for less it might be that disappointing).
Anyway, I will continue to look for better recordings for both Artie Shaw and Harry James.