Walt McNeil
(K=2146) - Comment Date 12/31/2004
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One of my favorite musicians and a great loss to the entertainment world.
Let's "Begin the Beguin" and keep it our minds. Thanks goodness, his music will live and be around for us to listen to and enjoy, even though he has moved on to greater rewards, in that Jazz Band in the Sky.
walt
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Chuck Freeman
(K=13616) - Comment Date 12/31/2004
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He was a great one... A little before my time, but I really liked his music. His loss is similiar to the way I felt when they tore down this once fine home.
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Walt McNeil
(K=2146) - Comment Date 12/31/2004
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kind of looks like the place I used to live in1 (JUST joking). walt
Very good shot.
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svend videbak
(K=7376) - Comment Date 1/14/2005
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Uh-oh, you mentioned "Begin the Beguine", a tune that he came to loathe. He couldn't stand it when people came up to him to praise it. My father is a great jazz fan (jazz recorded up to about 1950 that is!) and as a kid I'd listen with him on Sunday afternoons to his record collection. Of course he had Bennie Goodman and Artie Shaw records but for him there was no comparison -- "Shaw's tone is far superior to Goodman's", he'd say. "They both swing, but Shaw swings as an artist!" I think my dad also had an unvoiced admiration for Artie's amorous successes (Ava Gardner?! You kidding me?). Shaw had balls. He condemned the music biz with the strongest possible words and then backed them up by getting out of it entirely. He wouldn't take shit from anybody, which is probably one of the reasons why he was married eight times. He was 94 when he died, what a ripe old age, but I too was saddened to read of his death. They don't make them like him anymore.
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