|
About Chip Shelton:
If it can be classified as jazz, Clarence (Chip) Shelton, DDS, almost certainly plays, composes, and arranges it. Swing, shuffle, modal, blues, samba, bossa nova, Latin, 6/8, waltz, jazz, funk/rock, ballad, calypso, reggae: he is maestro of all of these genres. Shelton’s preferred instruments are a concert flute in C, a B-flat flute d’amour, a bass flute, a contra-bass flute, ethnic wood flutes, and every parade-lover’s favorite, the piccolo.
Shelton splits his time between orthodontics and jazz. “I treat patients 2 to 3 days per week so that I can have time to work as a jazz performer (in) 2 coequal careers,” says Shelton, a soul-stirring flutist and occasional singer who also plays saxophone and piano to the delight of crowds at such venues as Madison Square Garden and the Apollo Theater in NYC.
Shelton’s orthodontics practice is distinct in the Manhattan market because of its strong emphasis on aesthetic options, such as clear braces. He says, “55% of my patients are grown-ups, and quite a few of them make their living in front of a camera.”
Shelton has integrated his music into his orthodontic office in a low-key manner. In the reception area, there is a modest display board featuring a calendar of coming Chip Shelton gigs along with a few write-ups and photos of his most recent performances (the newest set culled from an appearance at the Cape May Jazz Festival). Meanwhile, “a CD changer plays a rotation of 60 different albums, and a couple of mine are in the mix.”
“It’s much, much easier to incorporate music into my orthodontic practice than it is to incorporate my orthodontic practice from the stage. A couple of times we put on shows that were intended expressly to market orthodontics. These events were artistically satisfying, met with some business success, and audiences knew going in that there was an orthodontics connection,” Shelton remarked.
Shelton’s music career took off more than 10 years after he launched his orthodontics practice, following studies at Manhattan School of Music and with woodwind innovator John Purcell of World Saxophone Quartet fame.
Bio courtesy of Orthodontic Products, July 2006
|
