Jack Sheldon was an American jazz trumpeter, vocalist, and entertainer born Beryl Cyril Sheldon Jr. on November 30, 1931, in Jacksonville, Florida. He came up through the West Coast jazz scene of the 1950s, performing and recording with Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, and Curtis Counce. Sheldon's warm, lyrical trumpet tone and easygoing vocal style made him a popular figure in both jazz and television, and he served as music director on The Merv Griffin Show. He also gained a wide audience through his vocal performances on the animated Schoolhouse Rock educational series. While Sheldon was known primarily as a performer and interpreter rather than a prolific composer, he led numerous recording sessions under his own name, beginning with Get Out of Town in 1954, and contributed original material to his albums. Crescendo Blues, featured on AllSolos, reflects his deep grounding in the blues tradition and the swinging, melodic sensibility that characterized his playing. Sheldon worked extensively as a session musician in Los Angeles, collaborating with arrangers and bandleaders including Quincy Jones, Marty Paich, and Henry Mancini. He died on December 27, 2019, in Los Angeles, at the age of eighty-eight.
