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David Sherr

I have lived in Chicago, Baltimore, Tulsa, New York and LA, mostly LA. I began to play the clarinet and saxophone in high school, took up the flute in 1960 and the oboe (at the instigation of Plas Johnson and Sheridon Stokes) in 1966. Composition came later.

In 1960 I moved to Tulsa and after a brief period with a band that made some pretty funny sounds, I joined the Ernie Fields Orchestra. Ernie's band had existed since the early 1930s, flirted with success briefly in the 1940s, and even won the Pittsburgh Courier poll in 1947 over the Ellington and Basie bands. (The Courier was then the most widely circulated African-American newspaper in the country.) By the late 1950s the band had shrunk to eight pieces and a remarkable singer, Ann Walls. In 1959 a former member of the band, René Hall, arranged a swing era tune, In The Mood, recorded it with Hollywood studio musicians, and released it under Ernie's name. The record became a hit and revitalized the band, if only briefly.

A lot of great musicians had worked for Ernie over the years, including Yusef Lateef, Teddy Edwards, Booker Ervin, Hal Singer, Paul Quinichette, Benny Powell, Earl Bostic, even King Kolax, whose name appears in the biographies of both Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. And there were great musicians in 1960, but only one, Billy Davenport, who later worked with Otis Rush and Paul Butterfield, whose name would be recognized today. Although I learned a lot about music during the time I spent with the band, the real education was in traveling throughout the midwest and southwest in segregated America. Six years after the Supreme Court ordered integration, there were still "white only" signs and towns where we were denied accommodations. I've written about that in the "On The Road At 18" section of this web site.

I returned to LA and after some of the usual dues-paying stuff I began to do studio work as a woodwind player and eventually as a contractor. To read about some of the people I worked with over the years, please see Inside Studio A.

In addition to studio work I played a lot of concerts over the years, primarily as an oboe and English horn player, but occasionally on saxophone, clarinet or flute. I gave premier performances (world, American, LA, west coast, etc.) of works by Gilbert Amy, Luciano Berio, Harrison Birtwistle, Harold Budd, Paul Chihara, Paul- Heinz Dittrich, Ernst Krenek, Alexina Louie, Leonard Rosenman, Gerhard Samuel, Robert Saxon, Iannis Xenakis and others. Not exactly chamber music, I was the oboe soloist on Ray Charles's recording of Eleanor Rigby.

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338
Album Review

Jazz Arts Trio: Tribute

Read "Tribute" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The difference between jazz improvisation and composed variations on a theme is that the former is dynamic, while the latter is static. In jazz, improvisation amounts to “spontaneous composition," where a melodic variation over a harmonic skeleton occurs instantly. Improvisations on a theme in this sense are not written down prior to being played. However, these same improvisations can be transcribed after a performance (from a recording). This is what pianist Steven Mayer did on his Art Tatum - Improvisations ...

235
Album Review

David Sherr and the Bel Air Jazz Ensemble: Otherworld Music

Read "Otherworld Music" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


California saxophonist and composer David Sherr's music is like the meal one receives at that well conceived multi-ethnic restaurant. It delights with such unexpected entree combinations that work so well together, the patrons must reconsider their idea of what is good. I suspect that this is the intention of all art-on-the-edge. David Sherr's previous release, the Art Music Ensemble's Look Both Ways, combined Sherr compositions with and derived from selections by Claude Debussy and Luciano Berio. That result was a ...

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"...David Sherr's CD is extraordinary. His playing reveals a musicality and artistry that is not common." Lalo Schifrin, composer, arranger, pianist, conductor

"...an imaginative, well-executed project of music." Bill Kirchner, musician, composer, arranger, editor (The Oxford Companion To Jazz, A Miles Davis Reader, etc.)

"I am listening to your CD and it is very interesting. The French speaking part brings a change of pace that warrants close listening to connect it to the whole concept. I especially like your clarinet work..." Ellis Marsalis, pianist, pedagogue, patriarch

"I'm impressed by the obvious depth of commitment and dedication to excellence of you, as writer and performer, and of all the other participants. The writing is beautifully done and much of the improvisation is startlingly good. The CD glows with musicianship and fervor." Robert Freedman, Grammy winning (for Wynton Marsalis's Hot House Flowers), composer/arranger

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