16 August 2022
(Until 16 August)Charlie Shavers Teenage Prodigy – Phantom Dancer 16 Aug 2022
Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show
Charlie Shavers was an American jazz trumpeter. He played with Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmie Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams, Tommy Dorsey. and Billie Holiday. He was also an arranger and composer. One of his songs, “Undecided”, is a jazz standard.
Charlie Shavers and his trumpet on radio in the 1960s…
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 16 August) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
Charlie Shavers on the 1967 WCBS CBS TV NYC show, “Dail M for Music”…
YOUNG SHAVER
Charlie Shavers palyed piano and banjo before switching to trumpet.
Before the age of 16, in the mid-1930s, he was playing in the orchestras of Tiny Bradshaw and Lucky Millinder.
Aged 15, in 1935, he played in the trumpet section of Frankie Fairfax’s Campus Club Orchestra with Dizzy Gillespie and Carl (Bama) Warwick.
In 1936, he joined John Kirby’s Sextet as trumpet soloist and arranger. He was only 16, but gave his birth date as 1917 (he was born in 1920) to avoid child labor laws.
Shavers’s arrangements and solos helped make Kirby’s band one of the most commercially successful and imitated of its day. In 1937, he performed with Midge Williams and her Jazz Jesters.
Charlie Shavers on a 1950s Dorsey Brothers Stage Show…
YOUNG BLADE
In 1944, Shavers was playing sessions in Raymond Scott’s CBS staff orchestra, which you’ll here on this week’s Phantom Dancer.
He left John Kirby’s band in 1945 to join Tommy Dorsey’s Orchestra, with whom he toured and recorded, off and on, until Dorsey died in 1956.
In 1949, he sang and played the hit “The Hucklebuck” with the Dorsey Orchestra. You’ll hear him sing “Mt Daddy’s Got The Gleeks” with the Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra in 1956 on this week’s Phantom Dancer.
He played with the Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra on all “Stage Show” telecasts for CBS in the 1950s.
During this time he also appeared with the Metronome All-Stars and made 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.
Shavers died from throat cancer in New York in 1971 at the age of 50. His friend Louis Armstrong died while Shavers was on his deathbed, and his last request was that his trumpet mouthpiece be buried with Armstrong.
Charlie Shavers with the Benny Goodman Orchestra playing Sing, Sing, Sing on the Sid Caesar TV Show, 1 Nov 1954…
16 AUGUST PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer | ||
107.3 2SER Tuesday 16 August 2022 | ||
Set 1 | Larry Clinton | |
Dipsy Doodle (theme) + Shh! Don’t Look Now | Larry Clinton Orchestra (voc) Bea Wain and Ford Leery | Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 9 Feb 1939 |
Night Shades | Larry Clinton Orchestra (voc) Bea Wain | Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 9 Feb 1939 |
Strictly for the Persians | Larry Clinton Orchestra | Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 9 Feb 1939 |
Get Outta Town + half time announcement | Larry Clinton Orchestra (voc) Bea Wain | Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 9 Feb 1939 |
Set 2 | Johnny Messner | |
Can’t We Be Friends (theme) + Moonlight Masquerade | Johnny Messner Orchestra (voc) Jack Ryan | Marine Grill Hotel McAlpin WOR Mutual NYC 7 Dec 1941 |
Mamma Maria | Johnny Messner Orchestra (voc) The 3 Jacks | Marine Grill Hotel McAlpin WOR Mutual NYC 7 Dec 1941 |
Madeleine | Johnny Messner Orchestra (voc) Jack Ryan | Marine Grill Hotel McAlpin WOR Mutual NYC 7 Dec 1941 |
Pearl Harbour Attack News | WOR News Room | Marine Grill Hotel McAlpin WOR Mutual NYC 7 Dec 1941 |
Set 3 | Kay Kyser | |
I’m Sitting on Top of the World | Kay Kyser and his Band from the Carolines | Radio Transcription 1934 |
Going Home | Kay Kyser and his Band from the Carolines (voc) Glee Club | Radio Transcription 1934 |
Jungle Drums | Kay Kyser and his Band from the Carolines | Radio Transcription 1934 |
Who’s Going to Take Me Home? | Kay Kyser and his Band from the Carolines (voc) Kay Kyser, Mohan Boag, Sully Mason and Band | Radio Transcription 1934 |
Set 4 | Charlie Shavers | |
Theme + I Never Knew | Raymond Scott’s Capitivators | ‘Morning Music’ WABC CBS NYC 10 Jan 1943 |
What is this Thing Called Love | Charlie Shavers Quartet | London House WBBM CBS Chicago May 1962 |
Your Daddy’s Got the Gleeks | Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra (voc and tp) Charlie Shavers | Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 20 May 1940 |
I Want a Little Girl + Bernie’s Tune | Charlie Shavers Quartet | London House WBBM CBS Chicago May 1962 |
Set 5 | Phil Napoleon | |
Medley including Ballin’ the Jack | Phil Napoleon and his Memphis Five | ‘One Night Stand’ AFRS re-broadcast Nick’s New York City 20 Jul 1949 |
Runnin’ Wild | Phil Napoleon and his Memphis Five | ‘One Night Stand’ AFRS re-broadcast Nick’s New York City 20 Jul 1949 |
The Alligator Crawl | Hank Duncan (piano) | ‘One Night Stand’ AFRS re-broadcast Nick’s New York City 20 Jul 1949 |
Up a Lazy River + Close | Phil Napoleon and his Memphis Five | ‘One Night Stand’ AFRS re-broadcast Nick’s New York City 20 Jul 1949 |
Set 6 | 1938-39 Artie Shaw | |
Nightmare – opening theme + You’re Mine You | Artie Shaw Orchestra | Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WJZ NBC Blue NYC 20 Oct 1939 |
Nightmare – mid program theme + My Reverie | Artie Shaw Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest | Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WJZ NBC Blue NYC 25 Nov 1938 |
Moonray | Artie Shaw Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest | Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WJZ NBC Blue NYC 22 Oct 1939 |
Jungle Drums | Artie Shaw Orchestra | Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WJZ NBC Blue NYC 30 Dec 1938 |
Set 7 | Big Stars | |
You’re Just in Love | Louis Armstrong All-Stars (voc) Louis Armstrong, Thelma Middleton | ‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription 12 Dec 1954 |
Two O’Clock Jump | Harry James Octet | Aircheck 1950s |
Clarinet a la King | Benny Goodman Orchestra | Aircheck Virginia Beach 3 Sep 1949 |
Not Really the Blues | Woody Herman Orchestra | Blue Room Hotel Roosevelt WWL CBS New Orleans 20 Oct 1951 |
Set 8 | 1950s Jazz | |
Theme + Sweet Georgia Brown | Roy Eldridge Quintet | ‘Bandstand USA’ Cafe Bohemia WOR Mutual NYC Mar 1957 |
When Your Lover Has Gone + Theme | Erroll Garner Trio | Storyville WHDH Boston Dec 1953 |
Little Girl Blue | Shelly Manne Quartet | Basin street WCBS CBS NYC 1956 |