An Artie Shaw Birthday Salute

Artie Shaw was born on May 23, 1910. He was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and actor. Also an author, Shaw wrote both fiction and non-fiction. Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists, Shaw led one of the United States' most popular big bands in the late 1930s through the early 1940s. As I do every year I would like to remember Artie on his birthday but instead of playing many of his hits I am going to be playing some of his recordings that feature the many different vocalists that sang with his band. Starting way back in 1936 with Peg La Centra and going to the mid 1940's we'll hear a lot of different singers.

When I was a senior in high school I started listening to some of my father's records. I played clarinet in the band so I listed to Pete Fountain. But I pulled out a Benny Goodman greatest hits album that my dad had and was hooked. When I started college I was still seeking out Goodman albums in the local record stores when I read about Artie Shaw. The first album of Artie's I bought was one called "This IS Artie Shaw" from RCA Bluebird. I loved it from the first listening on.  I was taking saxophone and clarinet lessons at the local community college. Since they didn't have a full time instructor for that they hired a local instructor who also owned a music store. He sold records in his store and the first time I went there I noticed a bargain bin and in it was a big band lover's jackpot. He had marked down a series called "The Complete" for $2.00 each. In it was the complete Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw for RCA records. I snatched those up and still have them 40 years later.


If you are interested in learning about the life of Artie Shaw, there is a wonderful biography about him by Tom Nolan called, "Three Chords for Beauty Sake". I highly recommend it.

Will Bradley and His Orchestra

I have been a little lazy posting new items so I'm back again.  On this week's Big Band Bash I'll be focusing on the band of Will Bradley. Will Bradley along with drummer Ray McKinley led a very exciting band from 1939 to 1942. The Bradley band became well known for boogie-woogie, particularly its hit record, "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" In 1942, McKinley departed to form his own band. Bradley hired trumpeter Shorty Rogers and drummer Shelly Manne, but many members wound up in the military due to the draft, and the band dissolved.

He was born Wilbur Schwichtenberg on July 12, 1912  in Newton, New Jersey, Bradley was raised in Washington, New Jersey.

This was his obituary from the LA Times when he passed away in 1989:

Will Bradley, a handsome, urbane studio trombonist who emerged from those anonymous ranks to lead what briefly was one of the most celebrated Big Bands of the early and mid-1940s, has died.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Bradley, noted for such popular hits of the day as "Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar," "Celery Stalks at Midnight" and "Strange Cargo," died Saturday in Flemington, N.J. He was 78.

With drummer Ray McKinley, whom Bradley lured from Jimmy Dorsey, the Will Bradley Band was a mainstay of ballrooms and hotels during the wartime years of sentimental ballads, jive tunes and boogie-woogie.

Called by Glenn Miller "the best of all" the trombonists of his day, Wilbur Schwichtenberg had worked for years in recording studios before emerging to join the old Milt Shaw and Ray Noble bands (Miller was a fellow trombonist with Noble). In 1939 Schwichtenberg became Bradley and Wilbur became Will and he and McKinley (considered a co-leader although he sat at the back of the band) produced a series of sweet ballads and swing tunes for Columbia records.

With Freddie Slack at the piano the Bradley band recorded "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance," with Carlotta Dale on vocal, and "Old Doc Yak," with McKinley singing and playing drums.
Louise Tobin, then Harry James' wife, sang "Deed I Do" with Bradley shortly before the band switched emphasis from ballads to boogie.

Slack, later to form his own famous band, was the catalyst behind a white group of musicians playing what had been a black innovation.

In George T. Simons' book "The Big Bands," McKinley recounts how the musicians were experimenting with instrumental arrangements based on the blues with an eight-to-the-bar piano boogie beat.

"There was one point where I had a drum break and for some reason or other that night instead of playing the break, I sang out "Oh, beat me, daddy, eight to the bar!" After the set McKinley encouraged the writing of a song with that title and it became the biggest of the Bradley band's hits, selling more than 100,000 copies.

Bradley tried to chase that success with "Rock-a-Bye Boogie," "Scrub Me, Mama, With a Boogie Beat," "Fry Me, Cookie, With a Can of Lard" and others.

But he quickly became disenchanted with the band's new sound, preferring the more solid tunes of the day, and he and McKinley eventually split up, McKinley to form his own group in 1942.
Bradley brought new talent into his band after McKinley's departure, among them a young drummer named Shelley Manne and a trumpet player who called himself Shorty Rogers. These two were to become an integral part of modern jazz a few years later.

But the wartime military draft decimated the ranks of the younger players and Simon writes of one engagement in Detroit in which Bradley told him that six musicians moved from the bandstand to the recruiting station in a single week.

After that Bradley was forced to cancel many of his personal appearances and rely on studio musicians for recordings. Bradley himself soon returned to the studios where he had started.
He is survived by his wife, Joan, a son, a daughter and a grandson.

I hope you enjoy this look at a great trombonist who led  a very exciting band.