Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charles James Shavers was born on August 3, 1920 in New York City and took up piano and banjo before switching to trumpet. In the mid-Thirties he performed with Tiny Bradshaw and Lucky Millinder. In 1935 he joined the trumpet section with Dizzy Gillespie and Carl “Bama” Warwick in Frankie Fairfax’s Campus Club Orchestra.

1936 saw him as a member of John Kirby’s Sextet as trumpet soloist and arranger. Only 16 at the time he gave his birth date as 1917 to avoid child labor laws, Charlie’s arrangements and solos helped make the band one of the most commercially successful and imitated of its day. In 1937, he performed with Midge Williams and her Jazz Jesters. By 1944 he began playing sessions in Raymond Scott’s CBS staff orchestra.

Leaving John Kirby’s band In 1945 he joined Tommy Dorsey’s Orchestra, with whom he toured and recorded, off and on, until Dorsey’s passing in 1956. In 1949, he sang and played the hit The Hucklebuck with Dorsey. He was a member of Dorsey’s Orchestra on numerous Stage Show telecasts for CBS, including early Elvis Presley appearances. During this time he continued to play at CBS while also appearing with the Metronome All-Stars and making a number of recordings as trumpet soloist with Billie Holiday.

From 1953 to 1954 he worked with Benny Goodman and toured Europe with Norman Granz’s popular Jazz at the Philharmonic series, where he was a crowd favorite. He formed his own band with Terry Gibbs and Louie Bellson.

Swing era trumpeter Charlie Shavers passed away from throat cancer in New York City on July 8, 1971 at the age of 50. While on his deathbed his close friend Louis Armstrong passed away, and his last request was that his trumpet mouthpiece be buried with Armstrong.

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