* En anglais uniquement
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,
Charlie 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. During the 1960s, his range and technique gradually faded, and
Charlie Shavers died from throat cancer in 1971 at the age of 53. ~ Scott Yanow