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Lawrence James Shields (September 13, 1893 – November 21, 1953) was an early American
His playing, especially on phonograph records, was an important influence on later jazz clarinetists, including
dixieland
Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...
jazz clarinetist
The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. The clarinet family is the largest woodw ...
. He was a member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band
The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) was a Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued. The group composed and recorded many jazz standards, the m ...
, the first jazz band to record commercially.
Background
Shields was born into an Irish-American family in UptownNew Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, on the same block where jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden
Charles Joseph "Buddy" Bolden (September 6, 1877 – November 4, 1931) was an American cornetist who was regarded by contemporaries and later jazz scholars as a key figure in the development of a New Orleans style of ragtime music, or "jass ...
lived. Shields' family were musical; his brothers Harry, Pat (guitar), and Eddie (piano) all played music professionally.
Shields started playing clarinet when he was 14 and played with Papa Jack Laine's bands. He was one of the early New Orleans musicians to go to Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, first heading north in the summer of 1915 to join Bert Kelly
Charles Robert "Bert" Kelly (22 June 1912 – 17 January 1997) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Liberal Party and was an influential campaigner for free trade and the elimination of tariffs. He h ...
's band, then with Tom Brown's band, before joining the Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) in November 1916. The following year that band made the first jazz phonograph
A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...
records, propelling Shields' playing to national prominence. Around this time, he also played occasionally with King Watzke's band.
After leaving the ODJB in 1921, he played with various bands in New York City (including briefly with Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American Jazz bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist.
As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 193 ...
) before moving to Los Angeles, California where he remained throughout the 1920s, leading his own band and appearing briefly in some Hollywood films.
In the 1930s, Shields returned to Chicago and joined the reformed ODJB. He then worked for a while at "Nick's" in New York before returning to play in New Orleans and, later, in California. He died in Los Angeles in 1953.
Influence
His playing, especially on phonograph records, was an important influence on later jazz clarinetists, including Benny Goodman
Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially.
From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...
. Larry Shields inspired Dink Johnson to begin playing the clarinet, in a 1950 interview with Floyd Levin he stated: "I was actually a drummer, you know. I had always wanted to play the clarinet since hearing Larry Shields with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band."
He co-wrote the ODJB classics " Clarinet Marmalade" with Henry Ragas and " At the Jazz Band Ball", "Ostrich Walk", and "Fidgety Feet" with Nick LaRocca. These compositions became jazz classics and standards that were re-recorded by later jazz bands.
Honors
In 2006, his 1917 recording of " Darktown Strutters' Ball" with the Original Dixieland Jass Band was inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame
The Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame to honor musical recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of ...
.
See also
* Original Dixieland Jass BandReferences
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shields, Larry 1893 births 1953 deaths Dixieland clarinetists American people of Irish descent Jazz musicians from New Orleans American jazz clarinetists Original Dixieland Jass Band members 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians