Artie Shaw
- Category : Entertain-Music-Instrumentalist
- Type : MGE
- Profile : 2/4 - Hermit / Opportunist
- Definition : Split - Small (6,22,42,60)
- Incarnation Cross : RAX The Sleeping Phoenix 2
Biography
American jazz musician, a clarinetist, ever associated with his 1938 recording of "Begin the Beguine" that made him a star.
He was married and divorced eight times, including leading ladies of the time like Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. He was a self-acknowledged difficult man and a perfectionist.
In 1954, he decided to never play his clarinet in public again. He declared he could not reach the level of artistry he desired and that his quest for perfection would kill him. Shaw spent his time as a guest on television game shows, writing an autobiography and a novel, traveling and lecturing. But in 1981 he reorganized a band that bore his name, but with Dick Johnson as the lead clarinetist.
He died on December 30, 2004 at age 94 in Los Angeles. His health had been failing since he broke his hip several years prior.