Artie Shaw - Cool Daddy: Experiments with Be-Bop

2002 release

"I'd like to tell a funny story about Artie Shaw", Al Cohn, the tenor saxist heard on this CD once remarked, "but there aren't any".

Shaw's grouchy attitude towards the public had often seem unwarranted in the past but in 1949 the disastrous reception of his new band, his first in two years, led him not only to once again through up his hands at the whims of popular taste but to henceforth virtually abandon leading a regular orchestra.

It also contributed to Shaw's growing reluctance to remain in the music business or, as he might have put it "Show Business". In 1949 Artie Shaw, undoubtedly the most intellectual of the big names from the Swing Era, assembled a new band staffed by some of the talent then emerging from the second wave of modern Jazz, saxophonists Al Cohn and Zoot Sims and pianist Dodo Marmarosa amongst them, in order to both explore elements of the new music and to give a fresh slant to his own classic arrangements.

Financially the orchestra was a flop but musically it was an intriguing outfit as can be heard on this Jasmine collection. On some titles, a new Gramercy Five (Shaw's band-within-a band) additionally showcases both the leader's still developing clarinet style and the Be-bop trumpet of the under-rated Don Fagerquist.