Charlie Shavers

Charles James Shavers , known as Charlie Shavers, was an American swing era jazz trumpet player who played at one time or another with Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmie Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams and Billie Holiday. He was also an arranger and composer, and one of his compositions, Undecided, is a jazz standard.

Charlie Shavers father was from the prominent Shavers family of Key West, Florida, and Charlie was a cousin of heavyweight boxer Earnie Shavers. Born in New York City, he originally took up the piano and banjo before switching to trumpet. In the midthirties, he performed with Tiny Bradshaw and Lucky Millinder. In 1935 he played in the trumpet section, alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Carl Warwick in Frankie Fairfaxs Campus Club Orchestra. In 1936 he joined John Kirbys Sextet as trumpet soloist and arranger . His arrangements and solos with this band contributed greatly towards making it one of the most commercially successful and widely imitated bands of its day. In 1937 he was performing with Midge Williams and her Jazz Jesters. In 1944 he began playing sessions in Raymond Scotts CBS staff orchestra. In 1945 he left John Kirbys band to join Tommy Dorseys Orchestra, with whom he toured and recorded, off and on, until 1953. During this time he continued to play sessions at CBS, played w

Source: Wikipedia