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Jazz Articles about Jack Sheldon
Art Pepper: Smack Up
by Richard J Salvucci
There are certain players and recordings that make an indelible first impression. The circumstances usually involve a degree of ignorance: Who is that? What is he (or she) doing? How did this recording escape notice when so many others did not? A very personal reaction to Art Pepper. Urgency. Intensity. Listen to me. Before the name, there was the sound and the piercing tone that can only come out of some dark emotional depth. A listener did not ...
read moreCurtis Counce: You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce!
by Richard J Salvucci
When bassist Curtis Counce died of a heart attack at the age of 37 in 1963, the jazz world was deprived of a major talent. Not that one would have known much, for his death, while noted, was not extensively covered. Counce, a Midwesterner, had come to California and to jny:Los Angeles to learn his craft, where he played with such incubator orchestras at the Club Alabam as Johnny Otis (trumpeter Art Farmer started there too). He gigged in the ...
read moreTrying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon
by Randall Robinson
This article was originally published at All About Jazz on June 5, 2008. Finding Validation Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon is a film that tells the story of trumpeter-vocalist-actor-comedian Jack Sheldon's remarkable life and career. Beginning with his impoverished childhood in segregated Florida and proceeding to his formative Hollywood teenage years with the legendary Chet Baker, the film follows Sheldon's career as he swings through the Stan Kenton and Benny Goodman bands, creating ...
read moreArt Pepper: The Return of Art Pepper
by C. Michael Bailey
Alto saxophonist Art Pepper's first incarceration for drugs took place between August 1954 and July 1956, a period conspicuous for Pepper's absence from the recording studio. Pepper's first recording as a leader after his release was, aptly, The Return of Art Pepper. He had been busy as a sideman for trumpeters Shorty Rogers (Big Shorty Express (RCA, 1956)) and Chet Baker (The Route (Pacific Jazz, 1956)) before entering Capitol Studios on August 5, 1956 to record the ten pieces that ...
read moreJack's Gone! No He Isn't; Yes He Is; No He Isn't...!
by Jack Bowers
As I sat down to write this month's column, word came that trumpeter Jack Sheldon had died. No sooner had I written a few words about that when word came that trumpeter Jack Sheldon had not died. After some back-and-forth on the internet (is he or isn't he?), the last report, it seems, was the true one. According to his wife, Dianne, Jack Sheldon is alive and well, a statement that was confirmed when someone phoned Sheldon's home and Jack ...
read moreTrying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon
by Michael Steinman
Jack Sheldon Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon Bialystock & Bloom, Inc./February Films 2009Born in 1931, the near-legendary West Coast jazzman Jack Sheldontrumpeter, singer, comedian, actorhas played and recorded with Stan Kenton, Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon, Peggy Lee, Benny Goodman, Red Norvo, Bill Harris, Art Pepper, Anita O'Day and Tierney Sutton, as well as leading his own groups. His horn has been heard on movie soundtracks, he was ...
read moreJack Sheldon: Still Going Strong
by Larry Taylor
For Jack Sheldon, a beacon for some sixty years on the West Coast jazz scene, 2008 is turning out to be a very good year. At 76, the celebrated trumpet player, vocalist, bandleader and TV personality, is the subject of a new documentary film, while his jazz career continues to accelerate.He was there when the so-called West Coast Jazza cooled-down version of hard bopwas born. He calls himself a survivor" from the period. Only a few of us ...
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