Shaw’s Rangers…the great but unheralded WWII Big Band

 Shaw’s Rangers…the great but unheralded WWII Big Band

Most Big Band fans know about Glen Miller’ Army Air Forces Overseas Orchestra which played for WWII Allied forces in England and later Paris from June ’44 thru the wars end. Numerous studio and concert recordings chronicle this amazing musical morale booster considered one of the best Big Bans of the era. Most also know it led to the end of Glenn Miller, lost on a short hop over the Pond to prepare for the band’s arrival and performing in Paris after the liberation.

But on the other side of the world, another fabulous military Big Band performed far from the safe, glittering London and Paris concert stages of Miller’s outfit.

Far superior musician and close competitor to Miller’s Big Band fame was clarinetist Artie Shaw. When Pearl Harbor was announced during a Shaw concert, he broke up what was considered to be the best of his eventual 8 bands to join the Navy.

Shaw convinced the Navy to let him recruit a top band to entertain the military. Navy brass designated it Navy Band 501 but it became better known as ‘Shaw’s Rangers.’

For the first few months they entertained across America. Then they shipped out to Hawaii before Island hoping on dangerous ship and airplane trips, anyone of which could have added them to souring US casualty lists from Japanese planes and subs. On Guadalcanal they lived in primitive conditions, having to dive into foxholes when Japanese planes bombed their base. Every musician, unfit for such conditions, suffered in body and mind.


None more so than Shaw. After one such attack he suffered a nervous breakdown, simply wandering away from base in an amnesiac state. When an MP asked him where he was headed, Shaw replied “I don’t know.” Diagnosed with combat fatigue tho not engaged in combat, Shaw was discharged from the Navy in late ’43 and sent stateside. His bandmates were ecstatic as Shaw, an insensitive, driven perfectionist, alienated his entire band. Tenor man Sam Donahue took over Shaw’s Rangers for the duration.

Shaw not only avoided the Glenn Miller’s wartime fate, he lived on for another 60 years, the last 50 of which were without music. Shaw couldn’t handle his musical fame, pending his last half century writing, becoming an expert gun marksman and general misanthrope. Besides his 8 bands, he married and broke up 8 marriages. He appropriately titled his autobiography ‘The Trouble with Cinderella.’

While Shaw's Rangers were unheralded during the war, Miller’s outfit got tons of glory entertaining Allied soldiers in relative luxury and safety while providing posterity with many recordings of their storied time in Europe. And Shaw’s Rangers? Just one hard to find recording of 2 songs performed from the Pacific for FDR’s 61st birthday celebration back home.