Vladimir Simosko has written the book I have been trying to write since I became an Artie Shaw fan and collector in 1938 when I was 13. Mr. Simosko has assembled all the information I have collected over the years regarding recording dates, musicians involved, and covers many of the questions I have asked as well. Of most interest will be the years before Shaw recorded Begin the Beguine when he was a sideman with many large radio orchestras. Simosko uses conversations he had with Artie Shaw to backup much of the information. As Shaw wrote the introduction, the book becomes "authorized" and must be regarded as the ultimate record of one of the most complex jazz musicians in the jazz world, and at the age of 90 one of the last living members of the Big Band Era.

After years of looking through used and vintage book stores, it's great to see the re-release of Artie Shaw's books. His writing is just as masterful as the music he writes, although I'm sure he wouldn't like that comparison. I would recommend this book to fans of Shaw, jazz, a bygone era, or any book lover. You won't be able to put it down.

"The Grove Dictionary of Jazz" says this piece, which is not, in fact, a concerto, rather a big band arrangement (with strings) featuring clarinet, its title inspired possibly by Ellington's "Concerto for Cootie", shows, more than any other, the range of Artie Shaw's clarinet style, which is not to say it is his best recording. It is featured toward the end of the movie "Second Chorus", starring Fred Astaire, Burgess Meredith, Paulette Goddard, and Artie Shaw (playing himself). It is available on certain Artie Shaw compilation discs.

This "book", however, is not, in fact, a score, but an abridged clarinet solo with simplified piano accompaniment and "orchestral" cues. The trumpet and piano solos are missing, but so far as I can tell the clarinet transcription (in concert key in the piano part, transposed in the clarinet part) is accurate. The pages are flimsy, and there is no cardboard cover, just a title sheet of the same flimsy paper. My copy arrived crimped at the corner.

I have been waiting since July 5 for you to send me this book.
I'll be glad to review it if you ever send it !!