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(1923-) Double bass player

Arvell Shaw was taught trombone and tuba in high school and learned double bass while playing with Fate Marable on Mississippi riverboats in 1942. After serving in navy bands, he toured with Louis Armstrong's big band; his association with Armstrong's All Stars from 1945-53 was interrupted in 1951 when he studied harmony and composition in Geneva. He played with Armstrong intermittently until 1957, regularly from 1963 to 1965, and again intermittently until Armstrong's death.

In 1958, Shaw toured Europe with Benny Goodman and performed and recorded with Sidney Bechet, Teddy Buckner, and Sammy Price. He played in Teddy Wilson's trio from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, recording with them in 1959. In 1974, he performed and made recordings in France with Barney Bigard, Earl Hines, and Claude Hopkins, and in an all-star sextet that included Hopkins, Vic Dickenson, and Buddy Tate. In the 1980s, Shaw freelanced in New York in show bands on Broadway; he also toured in The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong under Keith Smith.

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