Bob Shoffner was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 trumpeter.

Shoffner grew up in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, and played drums and bugle

Bugle (instrument)

The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure, since the bugle has no other mechanism for controlling pitch. Consequently, the bugle is limited to notes within the harmonic series...

 before settling on trumpet at age eleven. He played trumpet in a military band

Military band

A military band originally was a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the title of Bandmaster or Director of Music...

 while serving in the U.S. Army from 1917-1919, and then played with Charlie Creath

Charlie Creath

Charles Cyril "Charlie" Creath was an American jazz trumpeter, saxophonist, accordionist, and bandleader....

 and Tommy Parker

Tommy Parker

Tommy Parker "Tom" Theunisz is a Dutch Singer and Actor who played Billy in the feature film Amsterdam Heavy in 2011 and reached the mentor rounds of the first season of the German X Factor in 2010.-Early life:...

 in territory band

Territory band

Territory bands were dance bands that crisscrossed specific regions of the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Beginning in the 1920s, the bands typically had 8 to 12 musicians. These bands typically played one-nighters, 6 or 7 nights a week at venues like VFW halls, Elks Lodges,...

s. He relocated to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 in 1921, and played with John H. Wickcliffe, Everett Robbins, and Mae Brady. He returned to St. Louis and duty under Creath briefly before heading back to Chicago to play under Honore Dutrey

Honoré Dutrey

Honoré Dutrey was a dixieland jazz trombonist born in New Orleans, Louisiana, probably best known for his work in King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band....

 and then, in 1924, to replace Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

 in King Creole

King Creole

King Creole is a 1958 American film directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal B. Wallis. The story was adapted from the Harold Robbins novel A Stone for Danny Fisher and featured Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, and Walter Matthau. The film tells the story of a nineteen-year-old who gets mixed...

's band. He played with Creole until 1927, and spent time with Dave Peyton

Dave Peyton

Dave Peyton was an Americansongwriter, pianist, and arranger.Peyton first began as a pianist in the trio of Wilbur Sweatman, where he played from 1908 to 1912. Following this Peyton led his own ensembles in various theaters in Chicago...

 and Lottie Hightower during this time as well.

Shoffner suffered a lip ailment in 1927, but returned after a few months to play with Charles Elgar (1928), Erskine Tate

Erskine Tate

Erskine Tate was an American jazz violinist and bandleader.Tate moved to Chicago in 1912 and was an early figure on the Chicago jazz scene, playing with his band, the Vendome Orchestra, at the Vendome Theater, which was located at 31st and State Street...

, Jerome Carrington, McKinney's Cotton Pickers

McKinney's Cotton Pickers

McKinney's Cotton Pickers were an African American jazz band founded in Detroit in 1926 by William McKinney, who expanded his Synco Septet to ten pieces. Cuba Austin took over for McKinney early on drums....

 (1931), and Frankie Jaxon

Frankie Jaxon

Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon was an African American vaudeville singer, female impersonator, stage designer and comedian, popular in the 1920s and 1930s.-Life and career:...

 (1932). He moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1934, and played there with Fess Williams

Fess Williams

Stanley Williams was an American jazz musician.-Early life:...

, Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...

, and Hot Lips Page (1938). He returned once more to Chicago around 1940, and took a job working for the state; he recorded with Richard M. Jones

Richard M. Jones

Richard M. Jones, born Richard Marigny Jones, was a jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and record producer. Numerous songs bear his name as author, including "Trouble in Mind"....

 in the middle of the 1940s, but then took a hiatus from music until 1957 to play with Franz Jackson

Franz Jackson

Franz Jackson was a saxophonist and clarinetist of the Chicago jazz school.Notable as one of the last surviving jazz artists to have recorded pre-1940, Jackson was still active well into his 90s in various jazz clubs of Chicago...

's Original Jazz All-Stars (1957-1963). Health concerns forced him into semi-retirement after this time.

Shoffner also recorded in the 1920s with Lovie Austin

Lovie Austin

Lovie Austin was an American Chicago bandleader, session musician, composer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong are often ranked as two of the best female jazz blues piano players of the period...

, Jimmy O'Bryant

Jimmy O'Bryant

Jimmy O'Bryant was an American jazz clarinetist, often compared to Johnny Dodds....

, Ida Cox

Ida Cox

Ida Cox was an African American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings...

, and Luis Russell

Luis Russell

Luis Russell was a jazz pianist and bandleader.Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. His father was a music teacher, and young Luis learned to play violin, guitar, trombone, and piano...

.