Concerto for Clarinet
Artie Shaw (b.1910)
New Haven-born Arthur Arshawsky became famous as one of the great clarinetists, bandleaders, and composers of the swing era under the name Artie Shaw. In 1936 he founded a band with a most unusual instrumentation, including a string quartet, three rhythm instruments, and his own clarinet. Later he added two trumpets, trombone, sax, and a singer, but even so the group may have been too novel, because he was forced to disband it in 1937. The following year he created a more traditional swing band and recorded his first big hit, a version of Cole Porter`s Begin the Beguine. Though he was seen as a rival and a challenge to Benny Goodman, Shaw was basically a very shy man who did not enjoy the limelight, and he largely withdrew from public performance after the early 1940s, though he continued to study and compose, flirting with classical music, as in his Concerto for Clarinet of 1940.