Artie Shaw

He died from natural causes aged 94. Stump (with Red Ingle and the Natural Seven) and Darlene Edwards (with Paul Weston using the name Jonathan Edwards). In 2004, he was presented with a lifetime achievement Grammy Award. In addition to the records she made in her own name, Stafford also made comedy records as Cinderella G. Shaw himself would guest conduct from time to time, ending his self-imposed retirement. By Weston she had two children, Tim and Amy. In 1981, he organised a new Artie Shaw Band, with clarinetist Dick Johnson as band leader and soloist. She had two husbands, John Huddleston (of the original Pied Pipers) and Weston, the latter of whom was also her orchestra leader for most of her career.

In his later years, Shaw lived and wrote in the Newbury Park section of Thousand Oaks, California. In 1966, Stafford went into semi-retirement, retiring completely from the music business in 1975 except for one appearance in 1990 to honor Sinatra. The committee was investigating a peace activist organization, the World Peace Congress, which it considered a Communist front. In 1948 Stafford and Gordon MacRae had a million-seller with their version of "Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart" and in 1949 repeated their success with "My Happiness". In 1953, Shaw was brought up before the House Un-American Activites Committee for his liberal activities. At Columbia, she was the first recording artist to sell twenty-five million records. He had two children. In 1944, Stafford left the Pied Pipers to go solo, doing a lot of performances for military personnel, thus acquiring the nickname "GI Jo." In 1950, she left Capitol for Columbia Records, returning to Capitol in 1961.

A self-proclaimed "very difficult man", Shaw was married eight times; it became a national joke to have been "married as many times as Artie Shaw." Among his wives were Jane Cairns, Margaret Allen, Betty Kern (daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern), author Kathleen Winsor, and actresses Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Doris Dowling and Evelyn Keyes. The couple married in 1952. For the Marx Brothers' movie, The Big Store Shaw co-wrote the song, "If It's You." He also had a significant role in the Fred Astaire film Second Chorus. Capitol's music director was the same Paul Weston who had been instrumental in introducing Stafford to Dorsey. He wrote The Trouble With Cinderella and was working on The Education of Albie Snow when he died. In 1942, the group had an argument with Dorsey and left, but in 1943 it became one of the first groups signed to Johnny Mercer's new label, Capitol Records. He focused on writing, concentrating on semi-biographical fiction. The group also backed Frank Sinatra in some of his early recordings.

In 1954, Shaw stopped playing the clarinet, citing his own perfectionism, which, he later said, would have killed him. This led to success for the whole group, but especially for Stafford, who was also featured in solo performances. He began psychoanalysis and began to pursue a writing career. Half the members of he Pied Pipers Returning to Los Angeles, but they had a difficult time trying to make a living until they got an offer from Dorsey to join his big band 1939. He credited his time in the navy as a period of renewed introspection. They stayed in New York for three months, but landed only a single job that paid them just $3.60 each, though they did record four sides for RCA Victor Records. Throughout his musical career, Shaw would take sabbaticals where he would quit the business. Dorsey liked them enough to sign them for ten weeks, but after the second broadcast the sponsor heard them and disliked them, firing the group.

He received a medical discharge. In 1938, Weston persuaded Dorsey to sign The Pied Pipers for his radio show, and they went to New York for a broadcast date. He spent approximately 18 months playing for navy personnel, sometimes as many as four shows a day. The group became very popular, working on local radio and movie soundtracks, and caught the attention of two of Tommy Dorsey's arrangers, Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston. Navy (along with his entire band) and served with them in the Pacific theater (similar to Glenn Miller's wartime band in Europe). This group consisted of eight members: John Huddleston (who was Stafford's husband at the time), Hal Hooper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody Newbury, and Dick Whittinghill, besides Stafford. During WWII he enlisted in the U.S. When her sisters married, the group broke up and Stafford joined a new vocal group, The Pied Pipers.

At the height of his popularity, Shaw reportedly earned US$30,000 per week, a very large amount during the Great Depression. Originally, she wanted to become an opera singer and studied voice as a child. However, because of the economic Great Depression, she abandoned that idea and joined her sisters Christine and Pauline in a popular vocal group which performed on Los Angeles radio staton KHJ. His band became enormously successful and his playing, dismissed at first, eventually rivaled that of Benny Goodman: Longtime Duke Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard--himself a talented musician--cited Shaw as his favorite clarinet player. Stafford was born in Coalinga, California to Grover Cleveland Stafford and Anna York Stafford, a distant cousin of Sergeant Alvin York. He hired Billie Holiday as his band's vocalist, becoming the first white bandleader to hire a full-time black female singer. Stafford is greatly admired for the purity of her voice and is considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era. His piece "Interlude in B-flat" was one of the earliest examples of what would be later dubbed third stream. Jo Elizabeth Stafford (born November 12, 1917) is a singer whose career spanned the late 1920s through the early 1960s.

Shaw was know for being an innovator in the big band idiom, at the time using unusual instrumentation. Candy. During the Swing Era, his big band was very popular with hits like "Begin the Beguine", "Lady Be Good", and "Frenesi". "Whispering Hope". He returned to New York and became a session musician. "Say Something Sweet To Your Sweetheart". He was born in New York City, United States, and began learning the saxophone when he was 15 and, by age 16, had begun to tour with a band. "My Darling, My Darling".

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004), better known as Artie Shaw, was an accomplished jazz clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and writer. " "A" You're Adorable" (better known version by Perry Como). Download sample of "Begin the Beguine" by Artie Shaw, a surprise hit that turned the clarinetist into a swing star. "White Christmas" (better known version by Bing Crosby). "You Belong to Me" (her best-selling hit). "The Things We Did Last Summer".

"There's No You". "That's For Me". "Thank You for Calling". "Teach Me Tonight" (better known version by The DeCastro Sisters).

"Symphony". "Suddenly There's a Valley" (better known version by Gogi Grant). "Some Enchanted Evening" (better known version by Ezio Pinza). "Shrimp Boats".

"Serenade Of the Bells". "September Song". "Ragtime Cowboy Joe". "Out Of This World".

"On London Bridge". "No Other Love" (a different song from the one of the same name done by Perry Como). "Make Love to Me!". "Long Ago (And Far Away)".

"Let's Take the Long Way Home". "The Last Mile Home". "Just One Way To Say I Love You". "Jambalaya".

"Ivy". "It's Almost Tomorrow" (better known version by The Dream Weavers). "It Could Happen To You". "Indiscretion".

"I Love You". "Here I'll Stay". "Goodnight Irene" (better known version by The Weavers). "Feudin' and Fightin' ".

"Early Autumn". "Day By Day". "Black Is The Color". "Allentown Jail".

Download sample of "Basin Street Blues" by Stafford and Frankie Laine.