Bobby Shew Quintet - Class Reunion. Bobby Shew Quintet (2017)

Born in Albuquerque, NM in 1941, Bobby Shew started playing trumpet when he was a kid, and after leaving the service in 1964, he turned professional. He played with Tommy Dorsey, and with Woody Herman’s Herd, and he got his first experience as a lead player on the road with Della Reese. He spent 7 years in Las Vegas, where he played with the Buddy Rich band as well as all the top show bands, going out on the road as lead trumpeter with Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones and many others.

In the fall of 1972 Bobby had had enough of Las Vegas, and so he packed his trumpet and flugelhorn and left. He was determined to crack big-time L.A., and eventually managed to make the wedding between the business of music and the art of music. As a studio musician, Shew was on call constantly.

From 1975 on, he recorded and played with groups led by jazz greats like Frank Strazzeri, Horace Silver, Don Menza, Bud Shank, and Carmen McRae, and with the big bands of Louis Bellson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Juggernaut, Buddy Rich, Gerald Wilson, Woody Herman, and Maynard Ferguson band. After enjoying success as a sideman, in 1978 Shew started a prolific career as leader with all kinds of albums, from small groups to large orchestra, while also leading his own highly successful combo for many years.

Recognition has come for him in the form of acclaims and accolades, but maybe Dizzy Gillespie’s praise sums it up best: “The only guy who could play flugelhorn in the high register and make it sound good is Bobby Shew.”