Of course, I will never attain Artie Shaw's proficiency or mastery of the instrument. He was a virtuoso and along with Benny Goodman and Woody Herman, he will always remain one of my all time top clarinetists. His "Begin the Beguine" is a masterwork and I can listen to it repeatedly admiring the beauty of the whole piece. On the other hand, I will say I am very aware of my limitations and at my age, even my lungs will not stand hours and hours of practice, so I'll leave it at that. Even so, playing the clarinet, no matter how bad I am, is quite relaxing and besides, as they used to say, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”.
