Artie Shaw led some of the classic big bands of the Swing Era and maintained a consistently innovative approach to making music throughout his career. A virtuoso clarinettist whose technique surpassed that of the "King of Swing", Benny Goodman, Shaw was self taught in the arts of playing and also arranging. His first big band contained a string quartet, but this line up did not find commercial success so it was jettisoned in favour of a more conventional setup. Hits such as "Frenesi" and "Begin The Beguine" followed along with sides cut by Shaw's band-within-a-band, the Gramercy 5.