“Back Bay Shuffle”
Composed and arranged by Teddy McRae and Artie Shaw.
Recorded by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra for Bluebird on July 24, 1938.
Artie Shaw, clarinet, directing: John Best, first trumpet; Chuck Peterson and Claude Bowen, trumpets; George Arus, first trombone; Harry Rodgers and Russell Brown, trombones; Les Robinson, first alto saxophone; Hank Freeman, alto saxophone; Tony Pastor and Ronnie Perry, tenor saxophones; Les Burness, piano; Al Avola, guitar; Sid Weiss, bass; Cliff Leeman, drums.
The story:
In the spring of 1938, Artie Shaw found himself serendipitously in the same place as Chick Webb. Shaw was working with his band at a place in Boston called the Roseland-State Ballroom. Webb was working nearby with his band at an upscale restaurant/showroom called Levaggi’s. Shaw’s featured vocalist then was Billie Holiday; Webb’s was Ella Fitzgerald. Bostonians were able to swing into spring ecstatically in 1938.
The story of why Artie Shaw was in that place at that time is told in detail in the post here at swingandbeyond.com on the Shaw-Holiday recording called “Any Old Time.” That story and music can be accessed at endnote (1).
The story of why Chick Webb was in that place at that time was told by Teddy McRae, a saxophonist and arranger in the Webb band then. Here are his recollections: “We went up to Boston, and played in a place called Levaggi’s, a classy restaurant. Levaggi’s had been losing business with big white bands, so they decided to bring in colored bands. We went in there and broke all records. Artie Shaw was at Roseland. We were up there for a couple of months together.”(2) “Artie used to come in to listen to us. He was young and just getting started, and one night he asked if I could do some instrumentals for him. I told him, half as a joke, that I’d have a big hit for him when we got back (the) next weekend.(2) (Boston, because of its “Blue Laws,” was shut-down entertainment-wise on Sundays in the late 1930s. Many of Webb’s sidemen would take the train from Boston to New York and spend Sunday and half of Monday in New York, then return to Boston.) “The saxes in ‘Back Bay Shuffle’ play the sounds we used to hear of the wheels coming around the bend as we dashed for the train in Back Bay Station.” (2) (Teddy McRae is pictured above right.)
“So I came back, and it’s Thursday or Friday, and they (the Shaw band) are rehearsing. Artie said, ‘Where is it? Do you have it? I’m going to be broadcasting coast-to-coast and I need something to go off the air with.’ I showed him eight bars, and that made him mad.”(2) Eventually, McRae brought all of the pieces of “Back Bay Shuffle” to Artie Shaw, and Shaw in his meticulous way put them all together, and polished and refined them in performance with his band.
Artie Shaw poses with the band that recorded “Back Bay Shuffle” in the summer of 1938: L-R: Ronnie Perry, Les Robinson, Cliff Leeman, Claude Bowen, George Arus, Tony Pastor, Shaw, Chuck Peterson, Les Burness, Harry Rodgers, Russell Brown, Sid Weiss, Hank Freeman and John Best. Guitarist Al Avola has unfortunately been cropped off the left side of this photo.
Audiences liked “Back Bay Shuffle.” Artie Shaw and his musicians liked it. It is probable that Shaw did indeed broadcast “Back Bay Shuffle” in the spring and early summer of 1938, though no aircheck recordings by the Shaw band from that time period are known to exist. He wanted to record it, but had no contract to record for any record label since his contract with Brunswick Records was not renewed at the end of 1937. In July, that changed as he signed with the Bluebird subsidiary of Victor Records, as a part of a big move at Victor to sign a number of swing bands to record for Bluebird. They wanted to compete head-to-head with Decca, which was then having great success selling swing bands on their 35-cent disks. Victor would also be selling their Bluebird records for 35-cents. Among the other bands Bluebird signed then was Glenn Miller’s. The record market for swing bands was going to skyrocket in the next year and a half, with Shaw and Miller in the vanguard.(3)
The music:
This classic performance begins with Cliff Leeman playing the band on using his 25-inch China cymbal. Many years later, Leeman recorded his recollections about this, and other issues he confronted while he was the drummer in Artie Shaw’s band: “I was grateful to Artie Shaw for the opportunities he gave me as a kid learning. I was trying to develop my style of drumming, but I had to coincide with the type of music that we played with the type of band that we were developing. Doing that was a little rough at times because of Artie Shaw’s temperament. I wanted to play on the top cymbal with his clarinet (solos), but Shaw wanted tom-toms. So I had a special little Chinese tom-tom, and I worked it and I stuffed it with bandaids and God knows what else.”(4) (Above: Cliff Leeman in action – late 1930s. Both his China cymbal – the one with the rivets – and his small Chinese tom-tom are visible.)
My take on this is that Mr. Leeman’s memories, recalled more than 40 years after the events that he described happened, were remarkably accurate, but not perfect. Yes, there are instances in the many recordings of the Shaw band from the second half of 1938 where Leeman can be heard using the small tom-tom he referred to while playing behind Shaw. But there are also many more instances of him not playing that tom-tom behind Shaw’s solos. More about that later.
The Shaw band in action at Roseland-State Ballroom in Boston – spring 1938. Discernable faces include from L-R: Hank Freeman, Shaw, Fred Petry, Les Robinson, Harry Rodgers, Al Avola, Sid Weiss, Les Burness and Cliff Leeman. The trumpeter in back with his head turned may be Chuck Peterson.
The minimalist melody presented in the first sixteen bars is a great example of how unified this band was. Their antiphonal use of the reeds and brass is the epitome of rhythmic accuracy and precision, yet those instruments are also swinging. Cliff Leeman’s drumming in this sequence provides a supple beat via his high-hat cymbals, and for emphasis, his top cymbals. The bridge melody is played by the the riffing oo-ah brass nudged by low saxophone chords, a splendid contrast to what had come before. The final eight bars of chorus one are as the first sixteen, except the warm brass come in in the last few bars.
The transition into Shaw’s clarinet solo demonstrates Teddy McRae’s skill as an arranger, and his imagination: the riffing brass in a rhythmically intensifying dialog with the reeds, and then a miniature fanfare which launches Shaw with his high register clarinet into a descending figure over stop-time chords played by the band. Shaw’s sixteen-bar improvised solo is played against syncopated reeds and Leeman’s closed high-hat clicks. George Arus’s trombone is then heard with those saxophones behind him, but Leeman switching to his top cymbal. Listen for the dizzying descending saxophone section spot toward the end of Arus’s solo. McRae borrowed that mini-masterstroke from Duke Ellington. Trumpeter John Best rocks through his eight bar solo atop Leeman’s back-beats. Pianist Les Burness follows Best with some tasty playing, accompanied by his rhythm section cohorts and Leeman’s closed high-hats. (Above right: trombonist George Arus with Chuck Peterson behind him.)
The ensemble then riffs a bit before tenor saxophonist Tony Pastor swings for eight bars. The rolling saxophones come on for a bit, spurred by brass bursts. Then another brilliant arranging touch: a swirling sequence where the brass go up and the saxophones go down. From that point on, the brass and saxophones trade riffs atop Leeman’s back-beats. There follows a funky melodic fragment played by the saxophone section punctuated by yet more brass bursts, but this time augmented by Shaw’s piquant clarinet, and then the riffing, hot finale. (Above left: Tony Pastor solos while a pleased Artie Shaw looks on.)
This is a great example of a terrific band playing a superb swing arrangement with great gusto and inspired solos.
The recording presented with this post was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes and links:
(1) Here is a link to the story and music of “Any Old Time”: https://swingandbeyond.com/2020/09/19/any-old-time-1938-artie-shaw-and-billie-holiday/
(2) I have merged together Teddy McRae’s words as contained in a lengthy interview of him that was done at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in October of 1981, and in the notes on the music for The Swing Era 1937-1938 (1971), 58, by Joseph Kastner. Mr. McRae’s words in the interview are often disjointed because he jumped from one subject to another. I have edited those words to make them more organized and easier to follow. Here is a link to the McRae interview which goes directly to the pages cited in this post : https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/68251/JPEG/read/#page/204/mode/2up
(3) Teddy McRae and Artie Shaw collaborated on another original instrumental, “Traffic Jam,” which also became a hit record for Shaw. Here is a link to the music and story of “Traffic Jam”: https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/09/04/buddy-rich-at-100-1939-with-artie-shaw-traffic-jam-shoot-the-rhythm-to-me-john-boy-and-carioca/
(4) Here is a link to the interview Cliff Leeman gave at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Princeton University in June of 1979. This link will take you directly to the pages where he discussed Shaw: https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/68087/JPEG/read/#page/54/mode/2up
Here are links to some of other tunes that Shaw recorded on the same day as he recorded “Back Bay Shuffle:”
https://swingandbeyond.com/2020/09/19/any-old-time-1938-artie-shaw-and-billie-holiday/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/09/05/begin-the-beguine-1938-artie-shaw/
Be the first to comment