Harry Sheppard

Harry Sheppard  is a jazz vibraphone player who has recorded and played with Roy Eldridge, Charlie Shavers, Ben Webster, Red Allen, Cozy Cole, Sol Yaged, Georgie Auld, Clark Terry, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Lana Cantrell, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Barbra Streisand, Doc Severinsen, and Coleman Hawkins. Sheppard grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts, moved to New York City then to Houston in 1985 to care for his daughter, who lost a battle with cancer about a year later.

Biography
Harry’s older brother, Harvey Sheppard, gave Harry his first lesson when he was 15 and Harry was eight. After serving in the Navy, Harry met his first wife Betty Ann Miller when she was 16, and he was 19. His first professional performance in New York was with the Sol Yaged Quintet. In 1954, and Betty recorded vocals on the first cha-cha in English called “Cha Cha Cha in Blue.” Harry’s marriage to Betty lasted into the ‘60s. In 1958, Harry performed with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, and others on a TV show called Art Ford’s Jazz Party. Harry played with Benny Goodman in the ‘60s. In the 70’s, Harry worked with Deagan to create the electric vibraphone. After a second marriage ended, Harry was single for decades until he met, and later married, Pam Bingham, a clarinetist in the Houston symphony. At 84, Harry suffered two strokes, surgeries on his carotid arteries and a tongue cancer diagnosis, but continues playing.

Discography

 * B.G. World Wide: Bangkok, 1956/Basel, 1959/Santiago, Benny Goodman (1956)
 * Symbiotic, Harry Sheppard (1982)
 * Bean and the Boys, Coleman Hawkins (1983)
 * This-A-Way That-A-Way, Harry Sheppard (1991)
 * Points of View, Harry Sheppard (1992)
 * Viva Brasil, Harry Sheppard (1992)
 * The Rising Tide Sinks All, Free Radicals (1998)
 * Our Lady of Eternal Sunny Delights, Free Radicals (2000)
 * Famous Jazz Party - 1958, Charlie Shavers (2004)
 * Aerial Bombardment, Free Radicals (2004)
 * Jazz Festival, Vol. 2 [DVD], Duke Ellington, Bobby Hackett, Mike Bryan (2007)
 * The Freedom Fence, Free Radicals (2012)