Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Artie Shawwas an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and actor. Also an author, Shaw wrote both fiction and non-fiction...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth23 May 1910
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
stars distance dust
The distance between me and Benny [Goodman], was that I was trying to play a musical thing, and Benny was trying to swing. Benny had great fingers; I'd never deny that. But listen to our two versions of 'Star Dust.' I was playing; he was swinging.
music home guy
I can't understand guys who just have to have your autograph. What do you do when you get home, take it out & look at it?
has-beens
Any more would have been less.
country art jobs
Essentially, the popular musician in America must learn that his basic job is to entertain people, to make them forget their sorrows for a moment or two; in the same sense that any popular art form must aim at the same distraction value. Any such job as that is basically a young man's business. It takes a young man's energy to go traveling around the country, night after night in a different place, prancing and cavorting around in front of mobs of people all out to try to forget their problems for an evening. And for a young man it can be a good enough way of life, if he happens to like it.
running school talking
I was really running a music school back then, because my band wasn't making any money. I keep talking about money, because most people don't understand the part of money in running a band.
audience
An audience is in many respects no more than a mob under loose control.
music artist please
An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.
done if-i-could ifs
If I could have done anything more, it would have been less
play firsts etc
When I first met Benny Goodman he wouldn't talk about anything but clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. When I tried to change the subject, he said 'But that's what we have in common. We both play clarinet.' I said, 'No, Benny, that's where we're different. You play clarinet, I play music.'
music facts stink
I like the music. I love it & live it in fact. But for me the business part of music just plain stinks.
listening scalpels clarinet
Listening to Benny [Goodman] talk about the clarinet was like listening to a surgeon get hung up on a scalpel.
music clarinet has-beens
I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.
sex keys trying
That's the clarinet I used to use... but it's just a piece of wood, you know, with holes in it and they put these clumsy keys on it and you're supposed to try to take that and manipulate it with throat muscles and chops... and try to make something happen that never happened before. And when you do, you never forget it. It beats sex, it beats anything...
ballet needs beats
If you wanna dance, a windshield wiper'll do it-all you need is a beat.