Dick Shoup Music Page

"No instrument can lift you from the depths of hell to the heights of heaven quite like the trombone." -- Hector Berlioz

"The trombone is like the little girl in the nursery rhyme. When it is good, it is very, very good, but when it is bad it is horrid." -- George Bernard Shaw

"It's cold in the morning and it hurts at night." -- Bob Brookmeyer

I play trombone with various Bay Area jazz groups such as A Touch of Brass, DeAnza Daddios, the Musician's Warehouse Big Band, and others. Though big bands and ballads are my passion, I've had the pleasure of playing in everything from symphony and opera orchestras to jazz and dixieland groups to pop and show bands. I've done a few recordings and tv shows, played several times under Arthur Fiedler, and once even backed the Tiny Tim show! Here is a pic with the DeAnza Daddios Big Band in San Jose (2005), a recent one from the Touch of Brass Christmas concert (2006), and an old one on didgeridoo with a street performer in Zurich (1996).

I also play with all-trombone groups occasionally, such as the Bay Bones with as many as 110 trombones, as seen in these pictures taken at a rehearsal for the premiere of Henry Brant's "Orbits" in 1979 at St. Mary's in San Francisco. The performance was even reviewed in Time magazine.

I have also had the honor of playing the national anthems of Canada and the USA several times prior to Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants games with the Gordon Stewart Peninsula Trombone Choir. Great fun!

Back in my high school days, I got my first big band jazz training in a terrific group called the Major-Minors, where each section was led by an adult player (the "major") and included several kids from the neighboring high schools (the "minors"). Amazingly, the three minors from that trombone section got together recently (Jan 2008) for the first time in nearly 50 years. We played some trios and jazz charts, drank a little beer, and told exaggerated stories. Wonderful.

My biggest musical influence by far was my first trombone teacher, band director, mentor, and good friend Jim Tucci. He was a fine trombonist himself, and he taught and inspired me more than I can say.

Email: rgshoup at rgshoup.com