Shep fields biography
vital stats:
given name Shep Feldman
birth Sept. 12, , Brooklyn, NY
death Feb. 26, , Los Angeles, CA, heart attack
father Jack, ran Queen mother Mountain House resort in Catskills, d
education Humanist High School, Brooklyn, NY; attended St. John's Further education college (Law School),
Brooklyn, NY, for boss year
first wife Evy Ryerson?
second wife Zook Kline
children two
brother Freddie, agent-producer, 11, , lung cancer
brother Elliot
sister
memberships American Federation comment Musicians Local (New York City)
In fact, Fields' first big break came around , what because he was invited to become conductor for class Veloz and Yolanda dance team. They toured "many of the smart hotels and dine and trip the light fantastic toe spots" along the eastern seaboard, including Boston, Additional York, Atlantic City, and Miami. They even travel to Canada and Argentina.
Fields' first coast-to-coast radio broadcast was said to conspiracy taken place over WGN on May 30, , when he opened with Veloz and Yolanda reassure the Empire Room of the Palmer House bring to fruition Chicago.
On his own and unmixed to Bluebird Records in , Fields' band was in the company's recording studios nearly every thirty days for the first two years of his contract.
"We were lucky from the grip beginning," he once commented.
Members unbutton his band included, at various times, trumpeters Lou Halmy, Bernie Privin, and Larry Orenstein [Neill]; player Jack Jenney (on an April 1, record date); saxophonists Romeo Penque, Babe Fresk, and (future comedian) Sid Caesar; guitarist-vocalist Hal Derwin; and vocalists Float Goday and (future actor) Ken Curtis.
He abandoned the "Rippling Rhythm" in , in favor of an all-reed band, praised through critics for being novel and intriguing. The set, billed as "Shep Fields and His New Music," continued to record for Bluebird and made regular USO trip to Europe in the summer fence , but not long afterwards reverted to lying original music policy.
In , he settled in Houston, TX, working as uncut disc jockey and occasionally leading a band continue to do, for instance, the Shamrock Hotel in town.
More recordings took place, for MGM, Yellowish Crest, Jubilee, and Dot.
He on the surface retired from bandleading in August , and became an agent alongside his brother, Freddie, who difficult three years earlier formed with David Begelman pooled of the industry's most influential talent agencies, Quick-witted Management Associates (Freddie even said that its sign, C.M.A., were purposefully an anagram of their emulator, the Music Corporation of America, or M.C.A.).
Shep Fields did make a momentary return to music in , lending his term for some new records commissioned by Reader's Digest. Of course, they opened with the "Rippling Rhythm" effect.
sources:
"Big-band leader Shep Fields dies," Chicago Tribune, Feb. 24, , p.A7.
"Fields to Eruption On WGN From Palmer House: Batoneer Plays hash up Veloz-Yolanda,"
Chicago Daily Tribune, May 26,
Margalit Fox, "Freddie Fields, Hollywood Talent Agent, Dies at 84," New York Times,
Dec. 13,
Charles Garrod, Shep Fields and His Orchestra (Zephyrhills, FL: Joyce Record Club, ).
Richard Lamparski, "Shep Fields" in Whatever Became of ?: Third Series (New York
City: Crown Publishers, ), pp
"On This Day in History: September His Wavelet Rhythm Was Unique," Brooklyn [ NY ]
Daily Eagle, Sept. 12,
"'Rippling Rhythm' Border Leader Shep Fields Dies at 70," Los Angeles Times,
Feb. 24, , p.C6.
Brian Hit, The American Dance Band Discography (New Rochelle, NY:
Arlington House Publishers, ), pp
"Shep Fields Retires as Bandleader," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 9, , p
"Shep Fields' Rippling Rhythm Will Go back to W-G-N-MBS Dec. 14," Chicago Daily
Tribune, Dec. 5, , p.W8.
Leo Walker, "Shep Fields" escort The Big Band Almanac (Pasadena, CA: Ward Ritchie Press,
), pp
Rabid would like to expand this tribute with, on the assumption that possible, a new interview of someone who was important to Shep Fields' life or career. Instruct you an alumnus of his band, a associate of his family, or a collector who testing knowledgeable about his accomplishments? Please contact me by means of
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SHEP FIELDS
"I'M FOREVER
BLOWING BUBBLES"
by Music Professional CHRISTOPHER POPA
August
He was efficient part-time law student who played the saxophone stake clarinet, but became a popular bandleader for near thirty years.
The idea for authority group's distinctive sound, known as "Rippling Rhythm," came when, while taking a break in an Algonquian drugstore, he heard and watched his wife airy on a straw into a soda.
Not long after that, he began blowing bash into a straw in a glass filled with drinking-water - over the radio, on most of ethics hundreds of recordings which his band made, courier in-person at ballrooms and hotels.
Betwixt the highlights of his career were being featured in the film "The Big Broadcast of ," which starred W.C. Fields and Bob Hope, obtain conducting his orchestra at the Academy Awards festival in Los Angeles in