In early 1942, just months after Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941 and the U.S. entered World War II, clarinetist and bandleader Artie Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Many big-band musicians and several bandleaders did the same out of patriotism.
According to Artie Shaw: His Life and Music (1998), by John White, Shaw's first naval duty in 1942 was as apprentice seaman aboard a minesweeper docked along New York's Staten Island. Shaw then was sent to Newport, R.I., to start a band, but the venture hit a snag. As quoted in White's book, Shaw said, "I had two men who could blow good; the rest were terrible. Obviously, our only hope was to shape up with a uniform sound. So I asked the two good men to blow bad. Oddly enough, they refused." [Photo of Artie Shaw's Navy Rangers]
After brief hospitalization for migraine headache attacks, Shaw liked the band idea, but he needed a much bigger talent pool. So he went to Washington, D.C., where he persuaded the Secretary of the Navy to allow him to form a new band to take to the Pacific. Shaw was promoted to chief petty officer, and the spectacular band he assembled from recruits enlisted men was called the U.S. Navy Rangers. The band consisted of John Best, Frank Beach, Conrad Gozzo and Max Kaminsky (tp); Tasso Harris, Jesse Ray Heath, Dick le Fave and Tak Takvorian (tb); Artie Shaw (cl); Mac Pierce and Ralph La Polla (as); Sam Donahue and Joe Aglora (ts); Charlie Wade (bar); Claude Thornhill (p); Al Horisch (g); Barney Spieler (b) and Dave Tough (d). [Photo above of Artie Shaw aboard the North Carolina]
The first stop was Pear Harbor, where Shaw's band joined the battleship North Carolina. Max Kaminsky, a member of Shaw's Navy Rangers, said the band had a poor marching record. "We were a horrible excuse for a military band, in spite of the good musicians." [Above, Honolulu's blackout schedule for January 1943; all civilian lights—bulbs and flames—had to be extinguished at nightfall. Doors and windows of residences were required to be covered; car headlights had to be painted a dark color to dim them]
The band's lack of military discipline landed Shaw on the wrong side of his Navy officers. His ego beaten down, Shaw grew disillusioned with Navy life. Said Shaw: "The [top] brass considered our mission silly, and I heard a lot of 'You're not in Hollywood now.'" For nearly five months, the band remained in Honolulu, playing officers' clubs and performing concerts. [Photo above of Artie Shaw in Honolulu with the Navy Rangers]
When the North Carolina and Shaw's band left for the Pacific Islands, Thornhill wasn't on board. Chafing under Shaw's leadership when both had been bandleaders in civilian life, Thornhill wanted out. He lobbied commanders to let him head his own band, and he was granted his request. Shaw and Thornhill wouldn't see much of each other when they returned to the U.S. [Photo above of Artie Shaw and the U.S. Navy Rangers in May 1943 courtesy of the National Archive; see photo details at bottom]
At sea, Shaw's mission was to play for battle-weary sailors on islands thick with palm trees and under the constant threat of attack. The band's schedule was relentless, and many of its musicians suffered from physical and mental fatigue.
By the time the band reached Australia and New Zealand, Shaw said, "the instruments were being held together by rubber bands and sheer will, having survived any number of air raids and damp spells in fox holes; the men themselves were for the most part in similarly varying states of dilapidation." [Photo above of Artie Shaw in 1942 in Honolulu]
As Shaw would later tell Metronome magazine, "Was I scared? You bet I was. Conditions were grim. Nearby boats were being torpedoed. You just quake and wonder if it's you or the next guy who got hit."
On Guadalcanal, the Navy's positions were bombed nightly by the Japanese. One night, Shaw wandered off into the jungle, suffering a partial loss of memory following a bombing. Picked up by a Navy doctor, Shaw spent time recovering in a field hospital. By mid-June 1943, Shaw was leading his Navy band again on an series of island-hopping gigs. Shipped back to the U.S. at the end of 1943, Shaw was photographed in San Francisco on his knees kissing the dock. [Photo above of the battleship North Carolina]
With recurring migraine headaches, Shaw was discharged in February 1944 after spending time in a Naval hospital at Oak Knoll, California. His Navy Rangers band continued under the leadership of Sam Donahue, who dispensed of Shaw's book of arrangements. Their name was changed to the U.S. Navy Liberation Forces Band. [Photo above of the battleship North Carolina]
Unfortunately, the Navy Rangers did not record in Hawaii or during a rest stop in New Zealand. The only track that exists from Hawaii was recorded on January 30, 1943, during a broadcast celebrating President Roosevelt's birthday, when the band played Shaw's theme, Nightmare, as an intro, followed by Begin the Beguine. [Photo above of President Roosevelt preparing to cut his birthday cake on January 30, 1943; he was 61]
I searched online over the weekend and found the Shaw broadcast buried on a recording of the full show. I warn you, the sound isn't great, but it's still the only example we have of Shaw's Navy Rangers...
Shaw's first recording after his discharge came on June 10, 1944, when he was part of an Air Force Recruiting Service Command Performance radio broadcast that featured Bette Davis and Jimmy Durante. Shaw played just one song—Long Ago and Far Away—the only time in his career that he recorded it. I found the recording online in the show's full broadcast at a radio-history site. Here's Shaw's spectacular Long Ago and Far Away, with a knock-out ending and a note that I didn't even think existed on the clarinet...
Prevented from recording for RCA after he was discharged due to the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban, Shaw played with Count Basie on September 25, 1944, during an AFRS Jubilee broadcast from Los Angeles. Shaw was on two songs—Oh Lady Be Good and Artie's Blues [Photo, from left in front row: Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Les Paul. Back row: Illinois Jacquet, Tommy Dorsey, Ziggy Elman, Buddy Rich on drums and Eddie McKinney on bass; taken on September 30, 1944, during a jam on Honeysuckle Rose]...
By November 1944, the recording ban was settled and Shaw was back in RCA's studios, until the summer of 1945, when he signed with Musicraft and assembled one of the largest orchestras of his career. As for his years in the service, one imagines that somewhere in Hawaii and New Zealand there are acetates of the band on local radio inherited from a grandparent featuring Shaw's U.S. Navy Rangers performing. We can only wait and hope.
Artie Shaw died in 2004.
JazzWax note: Regarding the photo above taken in May 1943, of two ships side by side as the Shaw band performed, here's an interview conducted after the war with a sailor who was there: "Our destroyer [U.S.S. Pringle] was escorting the battleship North Carolina to New Caledonia in the South Pacific. After five days at sea, we crossed the equator and received orders to fuel up alongside the North Carolina. Ice cream was passed around and a band began to form on the deck. It was Artie Shaw and his Navy Rangers! As the band set up, we lined the port rail of our ship and soon that big band swung into Artie's theme, Nightmare. It was by far the most unique and spine-tingling band session I've ever had the pleasure to hear."
A special thanks to Jimi Mentis.