Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Indelible Artie Shaw

It all started out innocently enough. I just wanted to add some background music for my blog that would help set the stage for the vintage theme of my blog and Etsy store.  In searching for terrific music for my blog I found some TERRIFIC music.  I am now hopelessly hooked on rediscovering the music of the 1930's and 1940's.  

One of my favorite discoveries is the music of Artie Shaw.
Is this man a ROCK STAR or what!!


Artie Shaw was a band leader in the swing era.  His first big break was "Interlude in B-flat" for the clarinet.  Now I know what you are thinking, when I was growing up in the 1970's, the clarinet was NOT cool.  No self respecting rock and roll band had a clarinet player. The clarinet was an instrument for band nerds (I can say that, I was a band nerd) and it made a horrendous skwawking noise when played badly (which was often in the High School band).   Drums were cool.  Saxaphones were cool. Trombones were cool.  Clarinets were not cool. 

Had I been born 50 years earlier and seen and heard Artie Shaw play the clarinet I would have had a different opinion.  Artie made the clarinet cooler than when cool went to Cool Town! 

Did I mention Artie was cool?  See for yourself.

To hear the video without the blog music interfering, just click the pause button (the one that looks like two bars) on the music player to the left.  It's pink, you can't miss it!

18 comments:

  1. Very nice music. I'd like to mention that flutes were REALLY cool (b/c I played one for a while) lol

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  2. Oh of COURSE the flute was cool. Jethro Tull was one of my faves!

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  3. Very cool! I played the clarinet in Junior High and High School, and you're making me want to pick it up again!

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  4. Love the music, such an unexpected treat! Also a big fan of the flute ... played for ten yrs! Still enjoy a toot or two :D

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  5. fantastic! my bf and i met in district band... we were clarinet stand partners... a geeky band love story if there ever was one!

    I love clarinet geniuses! they help us band geeks survive :) :)

    great post!!!

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  6. I never played an instrument. Great music, it reminds me of something my grandfather would have listened to.

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  7. lol....neat! I opened 3 blogs and was reading and could here this instrumental music and could not figure out where it was coming from!!!

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  8. YES! This is the type of music I love! I too was a band geek and an orchestra geek. I played piano for the jazz band in high school and violin in the orchestra. I grew up on classical and jazz. Thanks for posting this. Artie Shaw does rock!

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  9. Very NIce! Clarinets were not cool in the 70's, I agree! I was a band nerd, too! My son, a very wonderful musician, played the sax and recently switched to clarinet! He would have been an outcast in the 70's....not now! He's loving it! (Also plays classical and jazz piano). Nice post! I'll have to ask him if he's heard of Artie Shaw!

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  10. Great!!! I never have thought to add music to my blog... it´s lovely

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  11. Crystal(eldoradosoap)April 13, 2011 at 4:47 PM

    I love all sorts of music, this is great!

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  12. I remember studying him a little bit during a Jazz class :)

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  13. Very fun! This music definitely makes me want to get up and dance around....

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  14. thanks for the great music! i was born in the '40s and i remember my mom listening to artie shaw! great music that we don't hear much of anymore.

    marilyn g
    cigarboxbeads
    suchandsort

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  15. Thanks for stopping in and taking time to leave a comment. I'm just tickled that so many of you liked the clip and I loved reading all of the "music stories". This was super fun!

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  16. the music is a wonderful addition!!! I tried to be a drummer, however, you need rythm so I didn't succeed :(

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