ALBUM REVIEWS : *** ARTIE SHAW “Best of the Big Bands” <i> Columbia</i>

An important historical reminder: Shaw was the first to use strings in a true jazz setting, 13 years before the first “Charlie Parker With Strings” set. This short-lived 1936 ensemble, with three brass, string quartet and rhythm, made discreet and sensible use of the strings in arrangements by Shaw and Jerry Gray, but A&R; men then, cursed with as little sense of history as today’s producers, saddled their artists with mediocre pop songs. One of Shaw’s three singers, Peg LaCentra, rises above the material, but Shaw’s clarinet is head and shoulders above it all. These were the first four of eight sessions; one can only hope the others, using better material, will follow soon.