Dick Shearer


Richard Bruce Shearer was an American jazz trombonist.

Career

Shearer was lead trombonist and music director for the Stan Kenton Orchestra. He succeeded Jim Trimble in the late 1960s, led the band during Kenton's illnesses, and produced several of its albums. He remained with the band until Kenton's death in 1979. For the next three years, Shearer was director of jazz bands at Wayne State University in Detroit.
In soft ensemble passages, Shearer plays softly, achieving an orchestral pianissimo; this technique allows the later ensemble climax to seem even more powerful. Shearer also championed what is referred to as the "breath attack", where repeated notes are not tongued, but are given an extra "push" of air.
Mike Vax, lead trumpeter of the Stan Kenton Orchestra, said, "Dick Shearer was the most important person on the band. I think that Stan felt about him like a son...the way Dick played trombone, that was the Kenton sound. Dick's trombone was derivative of all the great Kenton lead players, going all the way back to Kai Winding. But sometimes the person who's the end of a legacy becomes the culmination of the legacy, so I think Dick was the greatest lead trombone player of them all."

Discography

As leader

  • ''Dick Shearer and His Stan Kenton Spirits''

    As sideman

With Stan Kenton
With others