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Charlie Shavers

Charlie Shavers was one of the great trumpeters to emerge during the swing era, a virtuoso with an open-minded and extroverted style along with a strong sense of humor. He originally played piano and banjo before switching to trumpet, and he developed very quickly. In 1935, he was with Tiny Bradshaw's band and two years later he joined Lucky Millinder's big band. Soon afterward he became a key member of John Kirby's Sextet where he showed his versatility by mostly playing crisp solos while muted. Shavers was in demand for recording sessions and participated on notable dates with New Orleans jazz pioneers Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, and Sidney Bechet. He also had many opportunities to write arrangements for Kirby and had a major hit with his composition "Undecided." After leaving Kirby in 1944, Shavers worked for a year with Raymond Scott's CBS staff orchestra, and then was an important part of Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra from 1945 until past TD's death in 1956. Although well-featured, this association kept Shavers out of the spotlight of jazz, but fortunately he did have occasional vacations in which he recorded with the Metronome All- Stars and toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic; at the latter's concerts in 1953, Shaver's trumpet battles with Roy Eldridge were quite exciting. After Dorsey's death, Shavers often led his own quartet, although he came back to the ghost band from time to time. Shaver played at one time or another with Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams and Billie Holiday. During the 1960s, his range and technique gradually faded, and Charlie James Shavers died from throat cancer in 1971 at the age of 53. His friend Louis Armstrong died while Shavers was on his deathbed, and his last request was that his trumpet mouthpiece be buried with Armstrong in his coffin.


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163
Album Review

Charlie Shavers: The Everest Years

Read "The Everest Years" reviewed by David Rickert


Like many great trumpeters, Charlie Shavers got lost in the shuffle somewhere between Louis and Miles and today is known by few. Although he recorded several fine solos as a member of John Kirby and Tommy Dorsey's outfits, he scarcely recorded as a leader, which no doubt has contributed to his obscurity.

However, Empire Musicwerks has resurrected Shavers' recordings from the late fifties and sixties on Everest, a label that was a refuge for many of the stars of the ...

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Extended Analysis

Charlie Shavers: Complete Recordings

Read "Charlie Shavers: Complete Recordings" reviewed by Donald Elfman


Charlie Shavers Complete Recordings Lone Hill Jazz 2005

What a windfall! In one burst of reissue fervor, Lone Hill presents over six original LPs worth of music from an unsung giant of the jazz trumpet--a true link between the world of swing as it emerged in the '20s and '30s and the new sound of bebop that Charlie Parker and his acolytes delivered into a stunned jazz arena in the '40s and ...

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Video / DVD

Charlie Shavers v. Harry James

Charlie Shavers v. Harry James

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Back in early May, I received an email from a reader, Jeremy Mushlin, who had an interesting point: “I will go toe to toe with any Harry James fan and argue that Charlie Shavers was his trumpet-playing equal. Charlie just did not get the same opportunities and also wasn't as well organized as James. Compare Harry James's Soft Lights, Sweet Trumpet and Trumpet After Midnight with Shavers's Gershwin, Shavers and Strings and The Most Intimate. A big, bold statement, ...

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Recording

Charlie Shavers: Blue Stompin'

Charlie Shavers: Blue Stompin'

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

I like measuring jazz trumpeters on the heat scale. Imagine Chet Baker and Bix Beiderbecke all the way over on the cool left end and guys like Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw on the other end. You can almost plot all trumpeters along this line. In the case of Charlie Shavers, I'd probably put him to the right of center—left of Harry James and Fats Navarro and to the right of Clark Terry and Harry “Sweets" Edison. What set Shavers ...

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Video / DVD

"Let Us Now Praise Charlie Shavers"

"Let Us Now Praise Charlie Shavers"

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog

By Steve Provizer Charlie Shavers. Why is this man's work not better known? The only other swing trumpet players who could give him a run for his money in all facets of playing were Roy Eldridge and Buck Clayton. If you happened to like the particularities of their sounds, you might rate Harry Edison, Harry James, Cootie Williams or Red Allen as highly. The guy who most followed in his sonic footsteps was Clark Terry, although I have no idea ...

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