ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT San Clemente’s Music Man by Donia Moore Berisford ‘Shep’ Shepherd was
there. Where is there exactly? Shep believes that there is the state of mind
of musicians who understand the music of life. At 98 years old, Shep is still there, a master at communicating the language and culture of music and enjoying life...
T
his musician/arranger/composer and his wife Joy just returned from his first cruise through the Panama Canal. This
was his first opportunity to see where his father, one of the first engineers on the project, worked. Born on the way between his parent’s West
Indies home in Barbados and Philadelphia, Shep saw the light in Honduras in 1917. His father, Charlie, had taken a job working on the Panama Canal. Charlie sent his pregnant wife on to Philadelphia to safely await his arrival. When Shep and his Antiguan mother
eventually made their way to the City of Broth- erly Love, they lived in a largely Jewish neigh- borhood. He had plenty of friends in the area
snare drum he had ever seen. The satin black rims and nickel-plated tuning rods of the old school-owned instrument so captured Shep that he would have promised anything to have access to that beautiful drum with its rich sound. Fortunately, all he had to do was prom- ise Miss Cottman that he would take music les- sons.
Shep’s paper route money soon found its
way to drum lessons with the conductor of the Quaker City Elk’s Band. He realized the extent of Shep’s talent, and began grooming him for a percussionist position with the Philadelphia Orchestra. While other 14-year-olds were playing
Shep and Joy at their San Clemente home.
but had trouble getting together to play with them. When he was older he realized why: every Saturday when he was ready for adven- tures, his friends had to go to the synagogue.
marbles or kick the can, Shep was reading music and executing most of the varied drum parts, still using the school’s old drum. Along the way, he purchased a drum stand and music stand with his paper route money, and his mother made a cloth case for the drum and his lesson books. Shep met Alfonso Joseph, a Tuskegee In- stitute graduate who supported his wife and
Berisford “Shep” Shepherd with his drum at music school in Philadelphia.
On Sundays, when they were ready to play, Shep had to go to church. Shep describes his early childhood as being
in a state of cultural enrichment. “As a child, music, and the makers of it, fascinated me, es- pecially brass and percussion. Mother saved her tabletops, chair seats, and other household fur- nishings by wisely investing in a toy drum for me to beat on instead. Years later, when people asked my father what instrument I played, he proudly grinned his mile-wide smile and boasted that I played the bass drum, even after I was playing 11 other percussion instruments plus the trombone.”
“When the student is ready, the teacher appears” As Shep’s musical curiosity stretched, an
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elementary school music teacher recognized the potential in her young student. Miss Lattisa Cottman was the first of many teachers who encouraged Shep, seducing him into studying music with the promise of the most beautiful
large family during the week working as a neighborhood electrical repair man, but on the floor of his shop week-ends conducted a youth orchestra rehearsal. Four of his own children, as well as several other budding young instru- mentalists from the neighborhood, joined Shep and to practice easy drum pieces. In concert, their best piece, and Shep’s favorite, was An- chors Away, played to a marching rhythm.
Pearl Bailey and the
Little Drummer Boy Tomboy Pearl Bailey often shot marbles
with Shep and his friends. One evening, a man dashed to the Shepard house around 6 or 7pm. “Is the little drummer home?” he asked franti- cally.
A block party nearby was all set to kick off
but the orchestra’s drummer had not shown up. Pearl Bailey lived nearby and told them “Berisford’s got a drum.” That’s all it took to kick Shep’s drumming career into high gear. After that party, Shep,
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