Harry Shields (June 30, 1899 – January 19, 1971) was an early
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 ...
clarinetist
This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet.
Classical clarinetists
* Laver Bariu
* Ernest Ačkun
* Luís Afonso
* Cristiano Alves
* Michel Arrignon
* Dimitri Ashkenazy
* Kinan Azmeh
* Alexander Bader
* Carl Baerma ...
.
Harry Shields was born in Uptown
, the younger brother of noted clarinetist
Larry Shields
Lawrence James Shields (September 13, 1893 - November 21, 1953) was an early American dixieland jazz clarinetist. He was a member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the first jazz band to record commercially.
Background
Shields was born in ...
. Harry spent almost his whole career in New Orleans. He played with the bands of
Norman Brownlee
Norman Edward Brownlee (Feb 7, 1896 - April 9, 1967) was born in Algiers, Orleans Parish, Louisiana. He was a pioneer jazz musician and led (and played piano with) a very popular orchestra in New Orleans in the 1920s, Brownlee's Orchestra of New O ...
,
Sharkey Bonano
Joseph Gustaf "Sharkey" Bonano (April 9, 1904 – March 27, 1972), also known as Sharkey Banana or Sharkey Bananas, was an American jazz trumpeter, band leader, and vocalist. His musical abilities were sometimes overlooked because of his lo ...
,
Tom Brown,
Johnny Wiggs, and others. Many fellow musicians regarded Harry as superior to his more famous brother, Larry.
Johnny Wiggs commented that Harry Shields was the only clarinetist he'd heard who could always play the right note without fail.
Notes
References
*
Song of Harry Shields on Apple Music
1899 births
1971 deaths
Dixieland clarinetists
Jazz musicians from New Orleans
American jazz clarinetists
20th-century American musicians
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