Artie Shaw will always be a bit of a puzzle to his fans--"morons, “ as he once characterized some of us. The best band he ever fronted, and said so more than once, was his 1949-50 “bop" band. Benny ...

I've long known that Artie Shaw was outspoken, mercurial and blunt. As a boy wonder in the band business in the 1930s, Shaw was also temperamental and didn't tolerate boredom or repetition for long.