Elvin Shepherd

AKA:
Shep
Birth Name:
Elvin J. Shepherd
Birth Date:
May 28, 1923
Birth Place:
Alexandria, Virginia
Death Date:
June 2, 1995
Place of Death:
Buffalo, New York
Age:
72
Cause of Death:
Undisclosed
Cemetery Name:
Forest Lawn Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
Music
Elvin "Shep" Shepherd was a legendary saxophonist whose career spanned half a century. He traveled with such big name bands as Buck Clayton, Bill Doggett, Billy Ekstine, Erskin Hawkins, Lucky Milinder, and Nat Towles. During his storied career he also accompanied such artists as Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Ray Price, Della Reese, and Dakota Staton.

Fun fact: Drafted into the military at the age of 18, Shep went off to camp Pickett, Virginia for basic training where he made the acquaintance of members in an Army band and started sitting in with them on officers club jobs. Shep was on a troop train headed for Camp Barkley, in Ailene, Texas and made a stop in St Louis for a 5-6 hour layover. Shep and some of the guys made for place called the Hawaiian Club to hear a new band with a promising young, but unknown trumpeter named Miles Davis, and Shep recalls, “I gave him some tips on playing the trumpet”.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Forest Lawn Cemetery

1411 Delaware Ave

Buffalo, New York, 14209

USA

North America

Map:

Grave Location:

Section 36, Lot 31-N 2/3, Space: 2

Grave Location Description

Behind the mausoleum about 100 feet from the road, even with the back-side glass doors to the mausoleum

Grave Location GPS

42.92832937,-78.85753384

Photos:

[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]

FAQ's

Elvin Shepherd was born on May 28, 1923.

Elvin Shepherd was born in Alexandria, Virginia.

Elvin Shepherd died on June 2, 1995.

Elvin Shepherd died in Buffalo, New York.

Elvin Shepherd was 72.

The cause of death was Undisclosed.

Elvin Shepherd's grave is in Forest Lawn Cemetery

Read More About Elvin Shepherd:

Videos Featuring Elvin Shepherd:

See More:

Pee Wee Crayton

popular name: Pee Wee Crayton

date_of_death: June 25, 1985

age: 70

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Pee Wee Crayton was a Texas born blues guitarist who first took up the electric blues guitar after he moved to California in 1935. In Oakland, Crayton joined Texas-born bluesman T-Bone Walker. Throughout the forties and early fifties he performed in blues clubs along the Pacific Coast and toured the nation with his own band. Crayton also performed with Roy Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter, Big Joe Turner, Red Callender, and Gatemouth Brown. He played the Apollo Theatre and the Savoy Ballroom, and went on tour in package shows with Roy Milton, Dinah Washington, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, and Big Maybelle. He is best remembered by blues fans as having written two songs that achieved moderate success, “Blues After Hours” and “The Texas Hop.” Crayton’s legendary status brought him renewed attention and several albums and festival appearances in later years and his periodic guitar battles with longtime friend T-Bone Walker always made headlines. Crayton died in Los Angeles just after returning from a triumphant return to his hometown of Austin to play at Antone’s.

Charlie Patton

popular name: Charlie Patton

date_of_death: April 28, 1934

age: 43

cause_of_death: Heart Disease (Mitral Valve Disorder)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Small in stature but a giant blues talent, the often stubborn and rude (he was married 8 times) Charley Patton was the most influential artist of the first blues generation. And while there are no guitars, homes, autographs and only two known photographs of the bluesman, time has not diminished his celebrity and his place in blues history has reached mythical proportions.

Keith Relf

popular name: Keith Relf

date_of_death: May 12, 1976

age: 33

cause_of_death: Electrocution while playing an ungrounded electric guitar

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Keith Relf was the vocalist and guitarist for The Yardbirds, an English rock band that had a string of hits in the mid 1960s, including "For Your Love", "Over Under Sideways Down" and "Heart Full of Soul". The group is notable for having started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, all of whom were in the top fifteen of Rolling Stone's 100 Top Guitarists list [1] (Clapton as #4, Page as #9, and Beck as #14). A blues-based band that broadened its range into pop and rock, The Yardbirds were pioneers in the guitar innovation of the '60s: fuzz tone, feedback, distortion, backwards echo, improved amplification, etc. The band's disintegration led to the formation of the rock band Led Zeppelin, by Jimmy Page in 1968. Unfortunately Keith Relf is better know for his tragic, accidental death.

Back to Top