Houston jazz legend Harry Sheppard, a vibraphone virtuoso who played with Billie Holiday and Benny Goodman, dies at 94.
Harry Sheppard plays the xylophone at the White Linen Night in The Heights in 2016.Harry Sheppard’s first act featured collaborations with Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins and other jazz legends. His second act was set far from New York, where the vibraphonist played for decades. In Houston, Sheppard became a beloved fixture for nearly four decades.
Sheppard nurtured that spirit from his affinity for working with his instrument. “For me,” he told the Chronicle, “I try to give people the pleasure that I get out of playing.”To estimate the number of gigs Sheppard played in Houston would be folly. He didn’t just feel like a fixture in this city. Instead he felt like he’d been cloned and dispersed around Houston, with numerous standing gigs over the years at various venues, along with private functions, jazz lunches and brunches.
One of the few students he taught, vibraphonist Jalen Baker, recalled Sheppard saying he had learned from the big band legend Lionel Hampton. “It was this hilarious clip with a booze cart getting rolled through and then I looked closely and it’s Harry,” he said. “I said, ‘Goddamn, Harry, is that you playing with Billie Holiday?’”
Bassist and frequent collaborator David Craig said Sheppard granted the same freedom to his collaborators. After hearing about Sheppard’s death, he said he viewed a clip of them performing with Chadwick.
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