Arvell Shaw (September 15, 1923 – December 5, 2002) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

double-bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

ist, best known for his work with Louis Armstrong.

Life and career

He was born on September 15, 1923 in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. Shaw learned to play

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

in high school, but switched to bass soon after. In 1942 he worked with

Fate Marable Fate Marable (December 2, 1890 – January 16, 1947) was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. Early life Marable was born in Paducah, Kentucky to James and Elizabeth Lillian (Wharton) Marable, a piano teacher. Fate had five siblings, includin ...

riverboat A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury un ...

s traveling on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

, then served in the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

from 1942 to 1945. After his discharge he played with Armstrong in his last

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

, from 1945 to 1947. Shaw and

Sid Catlett Sidney "Big Sid" Catlett (January 17, 1910 – March 25, 1951) was an American jazz drummer. Catlett was one of the most versatile drummers of his era, adapting with the changing music scene as bebop emerged. Early life Catlett was born in Eva ...

then joined the Louis Armstrong All-Stars until 1950, when Shaw broke off to study music. He returned to play with Armstrong from 1952 to 1956, and performed in the 1956 musical, ''

High Society High society, sometimes simply society, is the behavior and lifestyle of people with the highest levels of wealth and social status. It includes their related affiliations, social events and practices. Upscale social clubs were open to men based ...

''. Shaw performed with Louis Armstrong and his All Stars with

Velma Middleton Velma Middleton (September 1, 1917 – February 10, 1961) was an American jazz vocalist and entertainer who sang with Louis Armstrong's big bands and small groups from 1942 until her death. Biography Middleton was born in Holdenville, Okl ...

singing vocals for the ninth Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...

in Los Angeles. The concert was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on June 7, 1953. Also featured that day were Roy Brown and his Orchestra, Don Tosti and His Mexican Jazzmen,

Earl Bostic Eugene Earl Bostic (April 25, 1913 – October 28, 1965) was an American alto saxophonist. Bostic's recording career was diverse, his musical output encompassing jazz, swing, jump blues and the post-war American rhythm and blues style, which he ...

, Nat "King" Cole, and

Shorty Rogers Milton "Shorty" Rogers (born Milton Rajonsky; April 14, 1924 – November 7, 1994) was an American jazz musician, one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played trumpet and flugelhorn and was in demand for his skills as an arrang ...

and his Orchestra.“More Big Names in Cavalcade” Article, ''

Los Angeles Sentinel The ''Los Angeles Sentinel'' is a weekly African-American owned newspaper published in Los Angeles, California. The paper boasts of reaching 125,000 readers , making it one of the oldest, largest and most influential African-American newspapers ...

'', May 21, 1953 Following this he worked at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

with

Russ Case Russ Case (March 19, 1912 – October 10, 1964) was an American trumpeter and bandleader who led jazz and light music orchestras. Biography Case was born in Hamburg, Iowa. His professional career began when he was hired at WOC (AM) in ...

, did time in

Teddy Wilson Theodore Shaw Wilson (November 24, 1912 – July 31, 1986) was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive swing pianist", Wilson had a sophisticated, elegant style. His work was featured on the records of many ...

's trio, and played with Benny Goodman at the 1958

Brussels World's Fair Expo 58, also known as the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (french: Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles de 1958, nl, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling van 1958), was a world's fair held on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Brussels, Bel ...

. After a few years in Europe, he played again with Goodman on a tour of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

in 1962. From 1962–64 Shaw played again with Armstrong, and occasionally accompanied him through the end of the 1960s. After the 1960s, Shaw mostly freelanced in New York, and kept playing until his death. He recorded only once as a leader, a live concert from 1991 of his Satchmo Legacy Band. Shaw died in

Roosevelt, New York Roosevelt (historically known as Greenwich and Rum Point) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 18,066 at the 2 ...

on December 5, 2002, at the age of 79.

Discography

With

Red Allen Henry James "Red" Allen, Jr. (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been claimed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armst ...

*'' Red Allen, Kid Ory & Jack Teagarden at Newport'' (Verve, 1957) With

*'' The Touch of Teddy Wilson'' (Verve, 1957) *'' Gypsy in Jazz'' (Colombia, 1959)

References

;Footnotes ;General references * Scott Yanow, Arvell Shaw at AllMusic

External links

*
Arvell Shaw Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (1994) {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Arvell 1923 births 2002 deaths American jazz double-bassists Male double-bassists Dixieland jazz musicians Jazz musicians from Missouri 20th-century American musicians 20th-century double-bassists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians