Artist: Artie Shaw & His Orchestra
Title: The Pied Piper
Label: First Heard (Firebird Music Productions)
Catalog Number: FH1005
Format: Vinyl LP, Mono (Suitable for Stereo equipment)
Country of Manufacture: UK (Edinburgh)
Genre: Jazz / Big Band / Swing
Rare Live Recordings from the "Swing House Collection" This First Heard release (FH1005) is a specialized collector's item featuring rare performances selected from the "Swing House Collection". It highlights Artie Shaw's brief but brilliant return to the public eye in late 1949 and early 1950.
Historical Significance:
Bop City Sessions: The recordings include tracks from a famous engagement at Bop City in New York City from March 1950.
Gramercy Five: Features Shaw leading a smaller, more intimate group (The Gramercy Five) for several tracks, including "The Grabtown Grapple" and "The Pied Piper".
Modern Influence: By 1949/50, Shaw was incorporating new, more modern arrangements into his library, showcasing an uneasy but fascinating balance between classic swing and the emerging "cool" jazz sounds.
Side One:
Theme, Cool Daddy, The Grabtown Grapple, Things Are Looking Up, Let's Fall In Love, The Pied Piper, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, Orinoco.
Side Two:
Gue Le Le, You Do Something To Me, Cross Your Heart, S'Wonderful, Innuendo, Begin The Beguine.