[Dixielandjazz] Jack Sheldon

[Robert Ringwald]

Jack Sheldon Is a Pleasing Part of L.A. Soundtrack
by Doug McIntyre
Los Angeles Daily News, November 30, 2011
Vin Scully turned 84 on Tuesday. It's impossible to imagine a summer in Los Angeles
without the soothing sound of Scully somewhere in the background. Dodger players
might come and go, owners buy or sell, but Scully rolls on like the mighty Mississippi.
He's Ol' Man Baseball. Ol' Man Summer in the Southland.
But today we celebrate another icon, not as instantly recognizable perhaps but as
much a part of the sound of Los Angeles as Scully himself.
Happy 80th birthday, Jack Sheldon!
Jack Sheldon is known to one generation as Merv Griffin's funny trumpet-playing sidekick.
To another generation he's the signature voice of "School House Rock!" He's "Bill"
from "I'm Just a Bill" and everybody's favorite station-master on "Conjunction Junction."
An earlier generation may remember his roles on "Dragnet" or maybe his own CBS series,
"Run Buddy, Run" or perhaps his nightclub years with Lenny Bruce.
But Sheldon is also an important artist of deep and lasting significance.
Universally recognized by musicians the world over as one of the great trumpet virtuosos,
his beautiful and distinctive bebop sound has scored hundreds of movie soundtracks,
including the Academy Award-winning theme to "The Sandpiper" -- "The Shadow of Your
Smile."
Additionally, Jack's horn accompanied many of the biggest names in recording history:
Mel Torme, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett,
Lena Horn, Bette Midler, Tom Waits, Anita O'Day, the Four Freshmen, Sammy Davis Jr.
and so many others.
As an instrumentalist he has soloed with Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman,
Stan Getz and played with his idols Harry James and Dizzy Gillespie.
He's appeared on the world's biggest stages, from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood
Bowl and he's played some of the world's smallest stages as well -- dinky nightclubs
with three drunks for an audience and a clanking ice machine for a rhythm section.
It was all good.
He plays the same, for a mob of 10,000, gawking tourists at Venice Beach, or a sick
friend he'd go to comfort at the Motion Picture Home. The music is the only thing
that matters.
Jack has lived in our city for 65 of his 80 years and loves L.A. without Randy Newman's
irony or sarcasm. He literally grew up on Hollywood Boulevard. His mother, Jen Loven,
ran her famous swim school near Western Avenue. Jack Sheldon helped create the West
Coast Sound of jazz and has sweetened the lives of millions with his great gifts.
Wouldn't it be sweet if L.A. finally honored him with a star on the Walk of Fame?


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
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