Jazz Connection Magazine

Couples dance as clarinetist Dick Johnson, center, soars over the band as he leads the Artie Shaw Orchestra at the

Paradise Performing Arts Center in Paradise, CA, on Friday, April 1, 2005. The band's performance was held in

conjunction as a fund raiser for the PPAC.

Copyright photos by Stephen Fratallone/Jazz Connection Magazine

It may have been April Fool's Day, but for those who did not attend the Artie Shaw Orchestra performance at the Paradise Performing Arts Center, the joke was on them.

The fifteen-piece swing band, under the direction of clarinet pied-piper Dick Johnson, treated the approximately 100 listeners and dancers, mostly seniors, who attended the show to a phenomenal demonstration of clarinet sensationalism set to the timeless music of the late legendary bandleader Artie Shaw, who died last December at age 94.

All the big Shaw tunes were put into play, starting off with the "King of The Clarinet's" haunting theme, Nightmare, and running the gauntlet with Back Bay Shuffle, Moonglow, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, Temptation, Traffic Jam, Dancing In The Dark, Frenesi and Shaw's two biggest hits, Begin The Beguine and Stardust. In fact, it was Stardust that drew the most dancers onto the make-shift dance floor at the foot of the stage. And why not? The piece has been rated the most popular song of the Big Band Era and of the 20th century.

Shaw's 1940 version of the Hoagy Carmichael opus originally featured the leader on a magnificent and technically challenging solo. Johnson's offering paid homage to that inspired work playing flawlessly, note for note, Shaw's exact solo.

Even a reincarnation of Shaw's small group, the Gramercy Five (so named after a New York telephone exchange), presented thrilling interpretations of Summit Ridge Drive, from 1940, and The Grabtown Grapple, from the 1945 band. Backed by the band's rhythm section, the ensemble was fronted by Johnson and trumpeter Kerry MacKillop, who, in his own immutable way, assumed the duties of past Gramercy Five brassmen Billy Butterfield and Roy Eldridge (see Pic 4 below).

Another featured soloist with new Shaw Orchestra was trumpeter Trent Austin who shined brilliantly on his presentation of Eldridge's 1945 gem, Little Jazz (see Pic 3 below), and on Taboo, sharing solo licks with Johnson.

It was Shaw who personally hand-picked Johnson twenty-two years ago to front his "ghost" band, calling him "...as of this time, ..the best I've ever heard. Bar none." Being a clarinetist himself, Shaw ought to know. The now 79-year-old Johnson remains one the best of a small handful of "licorice stick" players on the planet holding his own very nicely, thank you, along side contemporary giants Buddy DeFranco and Pete Fountain.

Johnson's playing retains all the fire and brilliance of his idol and mentor, Shaw, coupled with fertile musical imagination and technical proficiency. Besides that, plainly speaking, Johnson just knows how to swing as evidenced by his "let loose" solo work and musical dialog with the drummer on 1939's Carioca, and on the band's closing tour de force piece, Shaw's brilliant Concerto For Clarinet.

Despite the fantastic soloists, the real stars of the evening was the band itself with its biting brass ensemble, smooth-sounding sax section, and pulsating rhythm crew, thus providing the Shaw Orchestra with its unique sound underneath its leader's soaring and majestic clarinet (see Pic 1 below).

The only "empty spot" in the performance was the conspicuous absence of vocalists. Shaw scored numerous hit tunes thanks to the efforts of a variety of singers that he hired over the years. Shaw was fortunate enough to have sing with his1938-1939 band, Helen Forrest, considered by many to be the best female band singer of the time. Her many ballad hits such as Deep Purple, Day In, Day Out, Thanks For Everything, and Deep In A Dream, added much to the then-growing Shaw canon.

Also, who can forget the vocal contributions by saxophonist and part-time novelty singer, Tony Pastor? Pastor, a founding member of Shaw's1936 band, left to the Shaw legacy of musical excellence such classics as Indian Love Call, Rosalie, and You're A Lucky Guy.

It would behoove the new Shaw Orchestra, adding much to its presentation, to have singers who can do justice to these enchanting compositions.

Musically, the Artie Shaw Orchestra is the crème de la crème of name ghost bands giving big band aficionados in Paradise some truly magical moments.

Jazz Connection Magazine . April 2005 . www.jazzconnectionmag.com