Three Chords for Beauty's Sake
The Life of Artie Shaw
9 July 2010
Description
For his centennial, an indispensable biography of Artie Shaw, the legendary big-band leader, virtuoso clarinetist, and renegade in music and romance.
Tom Nolan, who interviewed Shaw between 1990 and his death in 2004 and spoke with one hundred of his colleagues and contemporaries, captures Shaw and his era with candor and sympathy, bringing the master to vivid life and restoring him to his rightful place in jazz history.
Reviews
"[F]ollows Shaw’s various zigzags with aplomb, and Nolan shifts gears adeptly in pursuit of his subject. The book is well paced and never lags, while the author addresses everything from litigation to personal rivalries with fairness and a deft touch." — Ted Gioia, San Francisco Chronicle
"Absorbing… fascinating." — David Gates, The New York Times Book Review
"Nolan reconsiders the swing clarinetist-bandleader in a beautifully measured, unforgiving account… An exemplary work of jazz biography." — Kirkus Reviews
"Every great artist deserves a great biography, and Swing Era bandleader and clarinetist Artie Shaw finally has one… Nolan has crafted a well-written, highly entertaining, and informative biography." — Library Journal
"Enthralling… [Nolan] gives the satisfactions of a true rags-to-riches story, complete with the spice of glamorous marriages and flings (with Lee Wiley, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, etc.), and plausibly accounts for Shaw’s huge character faults without obscuring his charm and prodigious talent." — Booklist
"Tom Nolan has a great story to tell and he knows precisely how to tell it, fast and deadpan, abetted by the irascible Shaw himself—a serial husband, detached father, and full time autodidact who may have been the finest clarinet virtuoso of all time." — Gary Giddins, author of Warning Shadows and Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams
"[A]t last, the lively, continually imaginative life of the most creative clarinetist in jazz history and an orchestra leader who not only produced hits but also new dimensions of this music." — Nat Hentoff, author of At the Jazz Band Ball: Sixty Years at the Jazz Scene
"In this riveting biography, Tom Nolan recovers the genius, the legend, the ego and blocked emotions of an enigmatic American icon." — Kevin Starr, University of Southern California
"[C]ompulsively readable." — Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal
Also By: Tom Nolan 
Artie Shaw, King of the Clarinet: His Life and Times
Paperback, 2011
"The two sides of Shaw…are at the center of…[this] compulsively readable biography." —Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal
Artie Shaw, King of the Clarinet: His Life and Times
E Book, 2011
"The two sides of Shaw…are at the center of…[this] compulsively readable biography." —Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal
