Artie Shaw
by: Admin
Total views: 571
Word Count: 264
Date
of Birth: May 23, 1910
Date
of Death: December 30, 2004
Cause
of Death: Diabetes
Arthur Arshawsky better known
as Artie Shaw, was an accomplished American jazz clarinetist, composer,
bandleader and writer. Shaw was born in New
York City, and began learning the saxophone when he
was 15 years old. By the age of 16, he switched to the clarinet while touring
with a band. Returning to New York,
he became a session musician. From 1925 until 1936, Shaw performed with a
variety of bands and orchestras, including those of Johnny Caverello and Austin
Wylie. During World War II, Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Navy. They served in the
Pacific theater (similar to Glenn Miller's wartime band in Europe).
After 18 months playing for Navy personnel (sometimes as many as four shows a
day), Shaw received a medical discharge. Shaw was also a precision marksman, at
one point ranking fourth in the United
States. In his later years, Shaw lived and
wrote in the Newbury Park section of Thousand
Oaks, California. In
1981, he organized a new Artie Shaw Band with clarinetist Dick Johnson as
bandleader and soloist. Shaw himself would guest conduct from time to time,
ending his self-imposed retirement. In 1991, Artie Shaw's band library and
manuscript collection was donated to the University of Arizona.
In 2004, he was presented with a lifetime achievement Grammy Award. Shaw had
long suffered from adult onset diabetes and finally died of complications of
the disease at age 94.
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