Shep Meyers Bio

Shep Meyers is a pianist, conductor, composer and arranger, from New York City, who has been living in San Diego, California for the past thirty-one years. His impressive list of credits include recording with Ella Fitzgerald, and playing with other musical greats such as Woody Herman, Billy Daniels, Julie London, Terry Gibbs, and Anita O'Day, as well as comedians Lenny Bruce, Steve Allen, Redd Foxx, and Henny Youngman. Shep served as conductor for comedian George Burns, singer/puppeteer Shari Lewis, and for Johnny Carson at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.

While living in New York City, Shep was an arranger for the Radio City Music Hall Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under conductor, Raymond Paige, and chief arranger, Rayburn Wright. He also composed, arranged and conducted the music for over 500 radio and television commercials. Television commercials that Shep scored were nominated for seven CLIO Awards (the Oscar of television commercials) in just eleven years. He also served as musical director and conductor for the 1974 CLIO Awards CBS-TV 90 minute Special.

Shep's newest CD, "SOLO THOUGHTS", is a solo Jazz piano recording, featuring 15 standards and 1 original, "Sunshine Morning". Clicking on this link http://cdbaby.com/cd/shepmeyers - will take you to CD Baby where you can hear some samples, order online, and even write a review.

The one original song on the "Solo Thoughts" CD is "SUNSHINE MORNING". Bob Dorough, Shep's friend for 50 years, honored Shep by writing a wonderful lyric to the song. (you can view Bob's gigantic credits at www.BobDorough.com They also produced a demo of the song, and you can hear an MP3 of it by clicking here. They have also included a PDF lead sheet of the song. (the original lead sheet was done on Sibelius, so with one mouse click, a singer can have the lead sheet transposed and emailed in their key in just seconds ).
Enjoy!

Shep's first CD, "Cornerstone," features his quartet with the late saxophonist, Jay Migliori, whose vast credits include having recorded an album with the great Charlie Parker and another with Miles Davis. Jay also was a charter member of the Grammy-winning group Supersax, played with Billie Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie and a myriad of other Jazz greats. In addition to Jay, there is the wonderful bass of Dave Curtis, and the sensitive drum work of Danny Campbell, who also produced this CD. Samples from this wonderful CD can be heard on this web site.

A second CD, titled "Originals," featuring Shep's original compositions, is now available on this web site. Check out the samples! The personnel on this CD is a quintet, featuring Jay Migliori on tenor sax, Rob Thorsen on bass, Bob Weller on drums, and Tommy Aros on percussion.

Since moving to San Diego, Shep's Jazz Quartet has played straight ahead Jazz every Tuesday night for twenty-one years at Croce's Restaurant and Jazz Bar.

In addition to playing at Croce's, Shep has led bands of all different sizes for hundreds of corporate events, museum events, and private parties. The list of satisfied clients reads like the Fortune 500 and the Social Register. Shep's intuitive feel for an audience's mood translates into pure listening and dancing pleasure. He has honed his choice of programming and always picks an all-star array of talented musicians and singers to custom fit every occasion. His creative artistry insures that his music is always fresh and innovative, and always packs a professional punch.

Shep has played with some awesome Jazz musicians. He was the pianist for a quartet in Los Angeles led by trumpeter Joe Gordon, with Charlie Haden, (Shep's roommate at the time) on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. While living in New York City, he was the pianist for, and arranged some of the music for the Ernie Wilkins Octet, which featured either Johnny Coles or Clark Terry on trumpet, Ernie on tenor saxophone, and either Jimmy Cleveland or Tom McIntosh on trombone, with Ben Tucker on bass, Bobby Thomas on drums, and Sam Herman on rhythm guitar. This group lasted for about two years, and played frequently at Birdland, the Five Spot, and the Jazz Cellar, which at the time, were the prime Jazz venues in NYC.

Over the years, Shep has played with Saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Jay Migliori, Gary Foster, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Nate Souders, Joe Maini, Frank Perowsky, Larry McKenna, Rod Cradit, Art Pepper, Sal Nistico, Warne Marsh, Scott Hamilton, Daniel Jackson, Anthony Ortega, Gary LeFebvre, Steve Feierabend, John Rekevics, Lou Ciotti, Frank La Marca, Bob Campbell, Tripp Sprague, Birdie Carter and Joe Farrell; Trumpeters Johnny Coles, Conte Candoli, Don Rader, Gilbert Castellanos and Flip Oakes; Bassists Major Holley, Dave Curtis, Bob Magnusson, Rob Thorsen, John Hurst, Chuck Schiele, Tom Azarello, George Morrow, Aaron Bell, Steve Swallow, Tommy Bryant, Malachi Favors, Sonny Dallas, Nobby Totah, Glen Fisher, Bob Daugherty, Reggie Workman, George Duvivier, Albert Stinson, Chubby Jackson, Ted Williams, Frank Proto, Bryan McConnell, Mark Dresser, Bert Turetzky, Gunnar Biggs, Jeff Rew, John Leftwich, Kristin Korb and Frank De La Rosa; Drummers Larry Rosen, Billy Mintz, Eddie Locke, Gary Nieves, Carlos Vasquez, Oliver Jackson, Jake Hanna, Joe Dukes, Mel Lewis, Gus Johnson, Chiz Harris, Jim Plank, Nick Martinis, Danny Campbell, Jackie Williams, Leon Petties, Dick Berk, Richie Goldberg, Don Joham, Dave Black, Al Leavitt, Barrett Deems, Bob Weller, Duncan Moore, Tim McMahon, Russell Bizzett, Steve Bohannon, Dick Lopez, Nick Ceroli, and Ronny Zito.

Shep also created, edited, and produced the music video for Duke Ellington's Grammy Award album "Digital Duke" for GRP Records. NEW! To see this video, click here for Windows Media or here for RealPlayer (broadband only) If you need the player, click here for Windows Media and here for RealPlayer.