Charlie Shavers

Who was 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 mid-thirties, he performed with Tiny Bradshaw and Lucky Millinder. In 1936 he joined John Kirby's 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 Scott's CBS staff orchestra. In 1945 he left John Kirby's band to join Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra, with whom he toured and recorded, off and on, until 1953.