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Jack Sheldon
As an integral part of the West Coast Scene of the 1950s, he played an important role in developing that era's bebop- inspired sound. His solid connection to that vibrant period in West coast Jazz surfaces with each impeccable solo.
Sheldon's collaborative list is indeed long and impressive: Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Curtis Counce, Shelly Manne, Art Pepper, Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr., Rosemary Clooney, Diane Schuur and many other greats.
Nominated five times for the Playboy International Artist Of The Year Award, Jack Sheldon continues to dazzle audiences with his prodigious chops and unerring sense of swing. Sheldon has been featured on innumerable soundtracks. It was his sensuous trumpet solo that immortalized Johnny Mandel's The Shadow of Your Smile from the Taylor-Burton film The Sandpiper. Today, his lyrical trumpet continues to garner the spotlight on soundtracks like Object of Beauty, The Super, White Men Can'tJump, For The Boys, Mr. Saturday Night, and his trumpet work is heard like a character in the Francis Ford Coppla film One From The Heart.
A sublime vocalist, Jack Sheldon has been ranked as one of the top jazz singers of the day. In addition to the many recordings show casing his trumpet, he's been a featured singer on soundtracks as well.
Jack Sheldon made his acting/comedy debut on The Steve Allen Show. His comedic skill was an immediate hit and he was soon given his own TV sitcom by CBS, Run Buddy Run. Over the years Sheldon has also appeared regularly on various television series including Dragnet, and Star Trek-The Next Generation. But his most powerful and popular TV stint was his tremendously successful 18 year association with Merv Griffin as featured soloist, resident comedian and musical director on The Merv Griffin Show.
In 2008 a feature documentray film opened, Trying to Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon, celebrated with many notable music and film personalities in interviews and rare archival films with Jack playing with Benny Goodman, Chet Baker and with his own remarkable band.
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Chet Baker & Jack Sheldon: In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album
by Pierre Giroux
In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album presents an intriguing collaboration between trumpeters Chet Baker and Jack Sheldon. Derived from a newly unearthed studio session from 1972 and released on the Jazz Detective label, it was co-produced by Zev Feldman and film producer Frank Marshall. Backed by a stellar ensemble featuring Jack Marshall (guitar), Dave Frishberg (piano), Joe Mondragon (bass) and Nick Ceroli (drums), the sextet swings through a repertoire drawn mostly from the Great American Songbook, supplemented by one original ...
read moreArt 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 Sheldon—trumpeter, singer, comedian, actor—has 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 moreJazz Musician of the Day: Jack Sheldon
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Jack Sheldon's birthday today!
Along with Lester Young in the '30s, Dizzy Gillespie in the '40s, and Zoot Sims in the '50s, Jack Sheldon is one of the Original Lions of the West Coast Sound. Jack's a premier improviser, is one of only a handful of trumpet players throughout jazz history who has developed his own distinctive “signature sound". It's an inimitable sound that comes from his heart and soul, what Miles Davis called “a ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Jack Sheldon
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Jack Sheldon's birthday today!
Along with Lester Young in the '30s, Dizzy Gillespie in the '40s, and Zoot Sims in the '50s, Jack Sheldon is one of the Original Lions of the West Coast Sound. Jack's a premier improviser, is one of only a handful of trumpet players throughout jazz history who has developed his own distinctive “signature sound". It's an inimitable sound that comes from his heart and soul, what Miles Davis called “a ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Jack Sheldon
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Jack Sheldon's birthday today!
Along with Lester Young in the '30s, Dizzy Gillespie in the '40s, and Zoot Sims in the '50s, Jack Sheldon is one of the Original Lions of the West Coast Sound. Jack's a premier improviser, is one of only a handful of trumpet players throughout jazz history who has developed his own distinctive “signature sound". It's an inimitable sound that comes from his heart and soul, what Miles Davis called “a ...
read more
Doc: Jack Sheldon, 2008
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Who was Jack Sheldon and why does he matter? Part of the answer can be found in Trying to Get Good: the Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon, a documentary released in 2008. Produced by Doug McIntyre and Penny Peyser, the film is part biography, part confessional and part intervention as Sheldon and his music colleagues shed light on the West Coast jazz scene in the 1950s and Sheldon's playing gifts and puckish personality. Jimi Mentis sent along links to the ...
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Jack Sheldon (1931-2019)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jack Sheldon, a West Coast jazz trumpeter who, in the 1960s, as jazz recording opportunities dried up, began to diversify into film studio work, TV acting, comedy, singing and a regular vocal part on the children's animated series School of Rock, died on December 27. He was 88. Sheldon was most notable for his clean, round sound on the trumpet and his easy-going personality and good cheer, which often seeped into his music. Sheldon spoke on camera in the Chet ...
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Jack Sheldon, 1931-2019
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
It is sad to report that the great trumpeter Jack Sheldon has died at the age of 88. Sheldon sang with spirit, style, phrasing and good humor that paralleled his trumpet playing. This video is from his 1984 appearance at Lulu White’s Mahogany Hall in the New Orleans French Quarter. The other members of his band were Dave Frishberg, piano; John Pisano, guitar; and Dave Stone, bass. The tune is Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” For more about ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Jack Sheldon
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Jack Sheldon's birthday today!
Along with Lester Young in the 30s, Dizzy Gillespie in the 40s, and Zoot Simms in the 50s, Jack Sheldon is one of the Original Lions of the West Coast Sound. Jack\'s a premier improviser, is one of only a handful of trumpet players throughout jazz history who has developed his own distinctive “signature sound". It\'s an inimitable sound that comes from his heart and soul, what Miles Davis called “a ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Jack Sheldon
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Jack Sheldon's birthday today!
Along with Lester Young in the 30s, Dizzy Gillespie in the 40s, and Zoot Simms in the 50s, Jack Sheldon is one of the Original Lions of the West Coast Sound. Jack\'s a premier improviser, is one of only a handful of trumpet players throughout jazz history who has developed his own distinctive “signature sound". It\'s an inimitable sound that comes from his heart and soul, what Miles Davis called “a ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Jack Sheldon
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Jack Sheldon's birthday today!
Along with Lester Young in the 30s, Dizzy Gillespie in the 40s, and Zoot Simms in the 50s, Jack Sheldon is one of the Original Lions of the West Coast Sound. Jack\'s a premier improviser, is one of only a handful of trumpet players throughout jazz history who has developed his own distinctive “signature sound". It\'s an inimitable sound that comes from his heart and soul, what Miles Davis called “a ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Jack Sheldon
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Jack Sheldon's birthday today!
Along with Lester Young in the 30s, Dizzy Gillespie in the 40s, and Zoot Simms in the 50s, Jack Sheldon is one of the Original Lions of the West Coast Sound. Jack\'s a premier improviser, is one of only a handful of trumpet players throughout jazz history who has developed his own distinctive “signature sound". It\'s an inimitable sound that comes from his heart and soul, what Miles Davis called “a ...
read more
"...one of the world's great trumpet players" —David J. Spatz, Atlantic City News
"spontaneous, unpredictable, often outrageous wit" Stuart Troup, New York Times
"Jack Sheldon's trumpet, gleamed and glittered. Every note plump as a ripe, sweet, grape" —Tony Gieske, Hollywood Reporter
"a born entertainer" —John Contarino, Atlantic City Magazine
"unerring sense of swing" —Zan Stewart, Los Angeles Times
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Jack Sheldon
Instrument: Trumpet
Born: November 30, 1931
Died: December 27, 2019
