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When trumpeter Bobby Shew left Los Angeles after years of work in big bands and the film and recording studios of L.A., he made a major commitment to education. From his home in New Mexico, he travels in the US, Asia and Europe for classes and workshops with college and high school music students. Among visits to schools in places as far-flung as Tokyo, Prague, Oulu in northern Finland andrecentlythe US Pacific Northwest and southern British Columbia, he manages to also squeeze in concerts and club appearances. The concerts are sometimes with the youngsters he teaches.
That was the case when Shew appeared as guest soloist with the Two Rivers Youth Jazz Orchestra (TYRJO), a band of all-stars from a variety of high schools in the Yakima Valley of Washington state, and with Central Washington University’s Jazz Band One. The CWU band was fresh from winning first prize at the Next Generation Jazz Festival in Monterey, California and will play at the Monterey Jazz Festival itself next fall. Shew played with both bands at The Seasons, Yakima’s superb performance hall. He is pictured here with the CWU band directed by Chris Bruya. (Photos courtesy of Larry Chamberlain, Yamaha)
It turns out that there is video of some of the concert, including Shew soloing on flugelhorn with the TYRJO conducted by Josh Yohe. The piece is Randy Aldcroft’s “Breakfast Wine,†a favorite of Shew’s since he recorded it with his quartet in 1985.
It was a treat to hear that because the Shew album Breakfast Wine is long out of print. For details, see this Rifftides archive post.