The_Guardian_-_2016-12-29

The army had taken over the state opera house for their studios and this allowed Shepherd to
persuade the opera’s principal clarinettist to give him a weekly lesson in exchange for 10 cigarettes a
go. Shepherd played with the BFN quintet, broadcasting twice a week and practising for several
hours a day, this under the benign command of Cliff Michelmore. As he said: “The army did a lot for
my start in the jazz world.”
Shepherd resumed work at the War Office after demobilisation in 1949 and played around London,
sometimes fronting his own quartet while fitting in with any number of Dixieland-style bands. In
1951, he joined the drummer Joe Daniels and his Hot Shots, then a highly popular group, and turned
professional, making his recording debut the same year. Daniels’s well-organised Dixieland approach
suited Shepherd and he stayed for three years, before moving on to play with Randall again,
cementing a working relationship that was revisited often over the years.
Shepherd also recorded a pair of albums under his own name at this time. Despite this, and like a
number of his contemporaries, he felt impelled in 1956 to try his luck in New York, then the jazzman’s
mecca, taking office jobs before the union allowed him to look for musical work. Back in Britain a
year later, he became part of an all-star group known as the Jazz Today Unit, playing concerts with the
Gerry Mulligan quartet in April 1957. He considered this to be a career highlight, another being his
presence as part of the Dill Jones quartet on the first-ever UK tour in May 1958 by the famous Jazz at
the Philharmonic troupe with Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson as the star attractions.
It was during this time that Shepherd began to be heard frequently on BBC radio, his quartet often
used on the Jimmy Young show, or on Round Midnight or Breakfast Special, and even on Music
While You Work, his limpid clarinet tone and flair for melodic invention a welcome inclusion on
these popular programmes. He also toured abroad, often in eastern Germany, played the Edinburgh,
Nice and Montreux festivals, and began to work regularly from 1967 with Wilson, this taking in
biennial UK tours but also a couple of visits to South Africa in 1973, including a concert in Soweto.
By the 1970s, he had linked up again with Randall, while still fronting his own Goodman-styled
quintet.
In 1980, Shepherd was recruited by the impresario Peter Boizot as a founder member and leader of
the PizzaExpress All Stars, a mainstream group that played residencies at the PizzaExpress jazz club
in Dean Street, Soho, several times a week over the following three decades, often with star
American guests. This was especially convenient for Shepherd as he now had a job with a film
production company located nearby.
He moved to Hampshire in 1996, so travelled to London less often, but still carried on with the All-
Stars until 2001, while fitting in dates with Fairweather’s Great British Jazz Band and playing solo
gigs. He was back at Dean Street in February last year for the 35th Anniversary reunion of the All-
Stars, with Boizot on hand to cheer on his veteran proteges.
Shepherd is survived by his wife, Mary (nee Evans), whom he married in 1966.
• David Joseph Shepherd, jazz clarinettist, born 7 February 1929; died 15 December 2016
This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/28/dave-shepherd-obituary