John Shifflett

John M Shifflett (March 22, 1953 – April 27, 2017) was an American jazz musician, player of the double bass and also an arranger, composer, and educator, with his last teaching job at San Jose State University.

John Shifflett was born in Dubuque, Iowa, attended High-School at Dubuque where he played trombone and began playing bass (see at Sing Out Dubuque, John Shifflett playing his own composition on bass, January 8th 1971), and graduated in 1976 with a BS degree from Iowa State University. While at the University of Iowa, where he was working on a Masters degree, John was its big band and its jazz combo bass player, appearing at festivals such as the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festivals in April 1979 and in March 1980.

John moved to San Jose in 1987, as his wife Bethany was offered a tenure-track position at San Jose State University.

John played in several notable acts, including Frankie Avalon, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the American Musical Theatre of San Jose, Dinah Shore, Mel Torme, Jerry Lewis, Dionne Warwick and the Smothers Brothers. According to his bio by OA2 Records and his San Jose State University profile, John Shifflett performed and recorded with key jazz artists such as Dave Liebman, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Red Holloway, Ernie Watts, John Zorn, Kim Richmond, Madeleine Peyroux, Kurt Elling, Norma Winstone, Boz Scaggs, Tom Harrell, Bobby Hutcherson, John Stowell, Harold Land and Kendra Shank. In the San Francisco Bay Area, John played with Christian Tamburr, Aaron Lington, Paul Tynan, Shay Salhov, Myra Melford, Eric Crystal, Mike Zilber, Scott Amendola, the Taylor Eigsti Trio, the Paul Nagel Trio, the Dave MacNab Trio, Ann Dyer & No Good Time Fairies, the Will Bernard Quartet, Anton Schwartz, Ray Brown's Great Big Band, Ben Goldberg, Tim Volpicella, Jason Lewis, Scott Barnhill, Aaron Wolf and Tim Lin.