Shelton Hemphill

Shelton "Scad" Hemphill (March 16, 1906 — January 6, 1960) was an American jazz trumpeter whose career lasted from the mid 1920s through the late 1950s.

Contents

• Baron Lee and His Blue Rhythm Band Jazz Martini
• Leap Frog Louis Armstrong And His Orchestra Decca
• Songs
• References

Born in Alabama's largest city, Birmingham, Hemphill was still in his teens when he played in the band of Fred Longshaw, which accompanied Bessie Smith on recordings in 1924–25. Also in 1924, at age 18, he enrolled at Ohio's Wilberforce University, and was a member of Horace Henderson's student band alongside the likes of Ted and Castor McCord. He moved to New York late in the 1920s, where he played with Benny Carter and Chick Webb before joining the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, playing with this group from 1931 to 1937. He was in Louis Armstrong's band from 1937 to 1944 and Duke Ellington's from 1944 to 1949. In the 1950s, he played occasionally in New York City but left music due to mounting health problems later in the decade.

Shelton Hemphill died in New York City two months and ten days before his 54th birthday. His demise, along with that of blues singer Gladys Bentley, who died twelve days later, was noted in the syndicated column of veteran music critic Ralph J. Gleason.