On a Sunday afternoon in July 1946, CBS's Columbia Workshop broadcast The Pied Piper of Hamelin, featuring a story adaptation and music by Artie Shaw. The national radio show broadcast from Columbia Square in Hollywood was aimed at young kids home from school on vacation. Weeks later, Shaw's label, Musicraft, brought together Shaw and the broadcast's ensemble to re-tell the story on three 78s, which were released as an album that fall as a holiday item.
The Pied Piper recording in July was sandwiched between Shaw's famed Get Out of Town (June) and For You, For Me, For Evermore (August) sessions for Musicraft with Mel Torme on vocal. Interestingly, Shaw didn't play much on the six Pied Piper sides. They were devoted largely to narration of the tale about the enterprising piper and his musical influence on Hamelin's vermin. But Shaw did play bits of his Pied Piper Theme with his Gramercy Five quintet as well as some solo clarinet work, and he led his large orchestra through original incidental music.
Here's how the three 78s stacked up (interesting configuration of sides, probably for seamless radio airplay):
Record #1
Side 1—The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Story adaptation and original music by Artie Shaw) Artie Shaw and his Orchestra
Narrated by Harry Von Zell
Arthur Q. Bryan - Mayor
Edwin Max - Pied Piper
Side 6
Record #2
Side 2—The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Story adaptation and original music by Artie Shaw) Artie Shaw and his Orchestra
Narrated by Harry Von Zell
Arthur Q. Bryan - Mayor
Edwin Max - Pied Piper
Side 5
Record #3
Side 3—The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Story adaptation and original music by Artie Shaw) Artie Shaw and his Orchestra (5631)
Narrated by Harry Von Zell
Arthur Q. Bryan - Mayor
Edwin Max - Pied Piper
Side 4
Here's the Gramercy Five recording of The Pied Piper Theme in 1949, featuring Don Fagerquist (tp), Artie Shaw (cl), Gil Barrios (p), Jimmy Raney (g), Dick Nivison (b) and Irv Kluger (d)...
And here's the 1954 version with Shaw's new Gramercy Five, featuring Artie Shaw (cl), Joe Roland (vib), Tal Farlow (g), Hank Jones (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Irv Kluger (drums).
JazzWax tracks: Artie Shaw's The Pied Piper of Hamelin album from 1946 was never released on CD and is extremely rare. But after a bit of detective work and web searches, I found a free download of a file featuring all six sides in one continuous flow. Go here to Kiddie Records Weekly and scroll down four rows. On the right is the Artie Shaw album. Click on "launch stream" and download. Double click on the downloaded file and it will automatically jump into your iTunes library under "Internet Songs."
Happy Thanksgiving!
A special JazzWax thanks to Les Johnston
