The Artie Shaw Navy Band
Review and Recommendation
Michael Doyle’s new book “Nightmare in the Pacific, the World War II saga of Artie Shaw and his Navy Band” is an essential addition to big band-era and jazz scholarship and a must for anyone interested in 20th-century American music and musicians. The actual circumstances of how and why leading band leader Artie Shaw joined the Navy to set out for Hawaii and the South Pacific with his mix of veteran and aspiring musicians have long eluded big band and jazz enthusiasts. Michael has comprehensively gathered and handsomely presented the gripping CPO Artie Shaw Navy saga. Furthermore, in addition to describing their service in the Pacific Theater, Michael also documents the unit’s service under the command of M1C Sam Donahue in the European Theater. The veteran and aspiring musicians’ saga, challenges, and achievements are long overdue for a genuine historical depiction, assessment, and appreciation.
The “Rangers”
Following a convoluted process, complicated by his business commitments and a concurrent Navy recruiting controversy unrelated to the mercurial “King of the Clarinet,” Artie Shaw became a Navy Chief Petty Officer in June 1942. Following his extraordinary decision to disband America’s number-one band in November 1939, an abrupt life change was nothing new for Shaw. However, some months followed before CPO Shaw finally organized and rehearsed his Naval musical unit in December 1942. Among the veteran musicians aboard with Artie were longtime friend Claude Thornhill and several prominent jazz stars, including drummer Dave Tough, whose lifestyles did not precisely fit with a military lifestyle. Younger and eager recruits coalesced around M1C Sam Donahue, another bandleader colleague. By early 1943, with the unit stationed in Hawaii, as Michael precisely details, storm warnings, including morale issues, became apparent. Thornhill opted out of going further with Shaw to the South Pacific.
Down Under
Nevertheless, the talented unit commanded by an often-absentee leader set sail for the South Pacific, island-hopping from New Caledonia to Guadalcanal and everywhere in between until landing in New Zealand and Australia. They dodged bombs, bullets, and torpedoes to deliver a touch of home to American service personnel and their allies. Less publicized, recorded, and broadcast than the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra in the USA and Europe, the CPO Artie Shaw “Rangers” nevertheless established a distinguished and equally exhausting record of achievement. However, the clock was ticking following their New Zealand and Australia residences. Significant issues, including Artie Shaw’s state of mind, led to the unit’s return to the USA and Shaw’s departure from service. documenting this colorful journey in a forthright and bright manner, Michael then takes readers along with M1C Donahue and the survivors to the European Theater.
Consequences and Legacy
Artie Shaw returned to the music business with his new band after retrieving his music library from the Navy. His appreciation for his service if not the rough seas he encountered, remained with him for the rest of his career and later life. However, the facts of his Naval medical reports and the condition of his unit by their return are crucial considerations that Michael has honestly and brought to light. These complications and consequences do not detract from or minimize the brilliant service of the musicians in the Pacific Theater under challenging circumstances, both wartime and personality-driven. Nor does the complete saga minimize the later achievements of the unit under the direction of M1C Donahue. “Nightmare in the Pacific” greatly informs and enhances our understanding of Artie Shaw, his contemporaries, and their wartime service. I highly recommend this essential document, published by the University of North Texas Press.
Dennis M. Spragg is the author of “Glenn Miller Declassified,” “America Ascendant,” and the forthcoming “The Eagle and The Lion – The Essential Alliance.”