Artie Shaw and Mel Torme

In the fall of 1945, Artie Shaw decided not to renew his contract with long-time label RCA Victor/Bluebird. Instead he signed with Musicraft Records, which had emerged like so many other small labels just after the musicians' ban ended. Six months before Shaw's arrival, Musicraft had recorded Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughan, and the label was fast developing a reputation for offering jazz artists more creative freedom than the Big Three—RCA, Columbia and Decca.

Almost immediately after switching labels, Shaw assembled one of the largest orchestras of his career, complete with 15 strings. In late 1945, strings were the thing as more big-name acts led by Shaw, Harry James, Frank Sinatra and others adapted a softer, more soothing feel to meet the easy-listening tastes of a war-weary public. [photo of Artie Shaw above by William P. Gottlieb, circa 1946-48]

By early 1946, Musicraft signed vocalist Mel Torme and the Mel-Tones, a vocal group Torme had started featuring Los Angeles City College students. The Mel-Tones was a young, musically smart, bop-influenced ensemble that had been recording with some success since 1944.

With both Shaw and Torme under contract, Musicraft owner Albert Marx had an idea. Why not team Shaw and Torme to piggyback on the surging success of Sinatra and strings over at Columbia? The Mel-Tones would further enlarge Shaw's already zeppelin-sized band while the group's  hip sound would attract younger listeners. Long story short, the idea was ingenious and the result sounded fantastic.

Between April and November 1946, Shaw and Torme recorded 17 tracks (including unissued and alternate takes) that remain among the most savvy band-vocal-strings treatments of the period. They also set the stage for newer, harmonically shrewder vocal groups like the Four Freshmen and the Hi-Lo's.

The arrangements for the Shaw-Torme sessions were by Sonny Burke. Dramatic and wide-ranging, the charts provided Shaw with plenty of room to sketch out melody lines with his brooding, low-register clarinet. They also were well suited to Torme, whose breathy vocal style was more confessional and sympathetic. In retrospect, the Torme tracks out-hip Sinatra. The Burke charts are much less sugary than Axel Stordahl's flowery arrangements for Sinatra. What's more, if you compare the two singers from the exact same months in 1946, Sinatra's recordings sound faintly pre-war while Torme's are cannily modern and already anticipating the 1950s. As for Torme's approach, his vocal style on these tracks is not only plaintive and confidential but also fresh and breezy. Sinatra's voice during these months tended to sound a bit gloomy, certainly a result of Columbia's heavy hand.

Listeners who are familiar with these Shaw-Torme recordings for Musicraft have long assumed that Shaw hired Torme for the sessions. Not so. Here's how Torme described the relationship in a 1976 interview with Les Tomkins:

"A lot of people think I worked for Artie Shaw when the Mel-Tones and I made those records with him. I never worked for Artie Shaw, ever; he never paid me one penny. I worked with Artie in conjunction with Musicraft Records: we were both under contract, and we were slung together by the record company. But only as joint artists; he was never my employer. He was my idol, though—I thought he was just great.

I would say the Mel-Tones, as a purely vocal group, was well above the average at that time. A lot of the groups with bands had a set kind of sound that could become a little stilted.

What I tried to do with the Mel-Tones, really, was to think of them as a sax section, and write for them that way...I have to admit candidly that the Six Hits And a Miss group [pictured] had simulated the sound of a band with a lot of the things they did, long before I had the Mel-Tones. They were a big factor in the way I wrote for the Mel-Tones. So were the Modernaires and a lot of vocal groups, as a matter of fact. We were only a departure because we did sing some band figures as if there were two saxophone sections with Artie Shaw, rather than one. We tried to do it that way—and it seemed to work.

I kept the Mel-Tones going for three years. We got together in late ‘43, and I broke the group up at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco in November of ‘46. The reason for breaking up the group was I was getting offers to go out as a single.

And also the fact that, tragically, the best vocal groups in the world just didn’t make it...The Mel-Tones were the same. I mean, I wrote arrangement after arrangement, and I never got paid for them, because I was the leader. When we did the Fitch Bandwagon, I got a rapid $125 a week, and I think the Mel-Tones were making $75 a week on that show.

Well, you know, those aren’t living wages, even at a time when prices are lower, when there’s no dearth of economy. So eventually, because I was getting offers, but also because it was a financial consideration, I just had to say: 'We’ve got to call halt to this. We’re all working our heads off, singing like mad, and I’m slaving away writing these arrangements—and the rewards just aren’t enough.' "

If you listen carefully to these Hollywood recordings, you'll hear early signs of West Coast jazz. You'll also hear Shaw, Torme and Burke capturing the country's new-dawn optimism just after World War II.

JazzWax tracks: I've always felt that the recordings Mel Torme made with Artie Shaw were his best. All the 1946 sessions were compiled in 1999 on a terrific CD from the UK called What Is This Thing Called Love? Unfortunately, it's out of print. If you can track down it down on eBay, you'll get the Shaw-Torme dates as well as a bunch of other Shaw recordings for Musicraft from the period. It's going for around $66.

Or...you have another option. Yesterday, after doing a little digging and cross-referencing, I noticed that many of the tracks are available on an imported box called Mel Torme: Jazz and Velvet here. There is one big hole, however. The recording of Get Out of Town foolishly didn't make the cut. Not to worry: You can download it at iTunes along with What Is This Thing Called Love? from the Artie Shaw: Self Portrait box.

There's also this from something called President Records in the UK. Upon close inspection, I notice that it looks identical to the What Is This Thing Called Love? CD above that's out of print. Considering it was released in 2003 and is only $18, it's probably worth a shot.

To me, the Shaw-Torme version of Cole Porter's Get Out of Town remains the definitive execution of this song. Shaw's soothing, jaunty clarinet perfectly offsets Torme's smokey-soft phrasing, and the Burke arrangement is pure drama. And dig Torme's loose, hip treatment with the lyric 2:43 into the song, when he adds a subtle gasp: "And when you're near, so close to me dear, we [gasp] touch too much." Brilliant!

JazzWax video clips: You can hear a 78-rpm recording of What Is This Thing Called Love? here. Dig the complexity of the Sonny Burke chart and how the different sections of the band explode at different times in bop-influenced configurations. Then dig the Mel-Tones with the strings washing over them. And finally, Torme's sound and phrasing on the vocal. It's a shame only 15 tracks were recorded. But 15 is certainly better than one or two.

Comments

[SilverMax_04]

I agree with your comments on the Shaw-Torme collaboration. If these comments are posted, I have more to say about where some of these 15 songs can be found.

[SilverMax_04]

I inherited a 33 rpm recording titled "Artie Shaw plays Cole Porter and Irving Berlin with vocals by Mel Torme, Kitty Kallen and Ted Walters. The record was produced by Lion Records, part of the MGM empire: L70058. A listing of the songs on this 12 inch 33:
Side 1
1 What Is This Thing Called Love; vocal by Mel Torme & Mel-Tones
2 In the Still of the Night
3 Get Out of Town; vocal by Mel Torme
4 You Do Something to Me; vocal by Teddy Walters
5 Night and Day
Side 2
1 My Heart Belongs to Daddy; vocal by Kitty Kallen
2 I've Got You Under My Skin
3 Love for Sale
4 I've Got the Sun in the Morning; vocal by Mel Torme & Mel-Tones
5 There's No Business Like Show Business; vocal by Mel Torme & Mel-Tones

The best song on this album is Get Out of Town. Could you list the 15 songs that Shaw and Torme recorded together?

[SilverMax_04]

Following your link to the Mel Torme "Jazz and Velvet" CD (where the artists are listed on each song), I am able (along with my Lion LP record) to identify 13 definite songs that were recorded by Artie Shaw and Mel Torme:
1 Born to Be Blue
2 I've Got the Sun in the Morning
3 Along with Me
4 What Is This Thing Called Love
5 For You, For Me, Forevermore
6 Changing My Tune
7 Guilty
8 And So to Bed
9 Don't You Believe It, Dear
10 It’s the Same Old Dream
11 I Believe
12 There's No Business Like Show Business
13 Get Out of Town

All but the last song has both Mel Torme and the Mel-Tones singing. "Get out of Town" is sung by Mel alone.

There are 25 songs on the other CD -- "What Is This Thing Called Love" -- but the vocal artists are not identified for each song. I suspect that all of the non-Mel Torme songs from my Lion LP record (like Kitty Kallen singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" are also on this CD). So, what are the missing two songs from the 15 you report having been recorded by Mel and Artie?