JOE Akan

scrapers, Clark Gable and Artie Shaw."
A notorious "ladies man" in his
social life — including wedding actress
Lana Turner among his eight mar-
riages — the handsome Shaw in 1938
recorded what is regarded by some as
the single most popular record ever
made: the famous swing version of
Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine."
The recording continues to sell in the
tens of thousands each year.
Shaw jokingly referred to it as "a nice
little tune from one of Porter's very few
flop shows (Jubilee)." Within a year
after the release of "Beguine," the Shaw
orchestra was earning $60,000 weekly
— equivalent to $600,000 today.
Shaw, now 90, is interviewed in the
Jazz series. He hasn't played the clar-
inet publicly since 1954, when he
"retired" to devote himself to literary
pursuits. In addition to short stories
from the mid-'50s, his published
works include his autobiography, The
Trouble with Cinderella (1952), and a
trio of short stories in the 1960s, I
Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead.
Shaw's was the first white band to
employ a black female singer, Billie
Holiday. He also employed Buddy
Rich, the flamboyant Jewish jazz drum-
mer, whom one publication dubbed
one of the biggest egos in jazz." Rich,
a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's
Tonight Show, died in 1987.

.

"

Between The Pages

Jazz was written by Geoffrey C. Ward,
who not so coincidentally is using the
start of the series to launch his new
book, Jazz; A Histog of Americas
Music (Alfred A. Knopf; $65), a corn-
panion piece to the documentary and
an attractive coffee-table book and
primer on the history of jazz with an
introduction penned by Burns. (The
recording Ken Burns' Jazz: The Story of
America's Music [Sony/Columbia], a
five-CD companion boxed set, also is
available.)
And if the TV series, the book and
CDs are not enough to satisfy the
hunger of jazz fans, they can check out
another new volume, Classic Jazz: A

Personal View of the Music and the
Musicians (University of California

Press; $37.50).
Compiled by Jewish author Floyd -
Levin, the 337-page book serves as an
encyclopedia of jazz, with a collection
of articles — on hundreds of jazz
greats — that the award-winning jazz
writer originally published in jazz
magazines over the past 50 years.
Levin, 78, of Studio City, Calif., who
dabbled in jazz while operating a
housewares manufacturing and sales

business for 30 years in the Los Angeles
area, spent six months compiling the
stories that show the passion and soul
of the musicians and the music.
After retiring from his business,
Levin took up jazz writing full time
for such publications as Down Beat,
Jazz Journal and International and
American Rag, 'and was voted No. 1
jazz journalist in a recent readers poll
in the Mississippi Rag.
Each of the chapters in the book
contains interesting anecdotal materi-
al, primary research and music analy-
sis, along with in-depth profiles of
Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington,
Jelly Roll Morton and many lesser-
known figures who contributed greatly
to the development of jazz.
They include Zeke Zarchy,. 86, a
Jewish trumpet player who is the only
surviving member of the original Glenn
Miller Orchestra. The book is illustrat-
ed with previously unpublished photos
from Levin's personal collection.
Levin describes the premiere of
George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in
1924, calling the composition "proba-
bly the most significant example of
symphonic jazz ever written. This per-
formance would emancipate jazz from
its 'low' status and mark its arrival as a
legitimate cultural form," he writes.

Levin learned to love jazz like many
other jazz fans, "when I was in high
school during the big-band swing era.
I was mesmerized one day by a trum-
pet player in a Salvation Army band.
"With the TV series and the new
books," he said, "jazz should get a big
boost on the American music scene."

WTVS-Channel 56 airs the 10-
part series Jazz on the following
dates: "Gumbo" (Beginnings to
1917), Monday, Jan. 8; "The Gift"
(1917-1924), Tuesday, Jan. 9;
"Our Language" (1924-1928),
Wednesday; Jan.10; "The True
Welcome" (1929-1935), Monday,
Jan.15; "Swing: Pure Pleasure"
(1935-1937), Wednesday, Jan.17;
"Swing: the Velocity of
Celebration (1937-1939),
Monday, Jan. 22; "Dedicated to
Chaos" (1940-1945), Tuesday, Jan.
23; "Risk" (1945-1955),
Wednesday; Jan. 24; "The
Adventure" (1956-1960), Monday,
Jan. 29; and 'A Masterpiece by
Midnight" (1 961 to the present),
Wednesday, Jan. 31.
Detroit Public Radio station
WDET will simulcast the series.

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