Historical Note

The Jazz Institute of Chicago is a non-profit organization founded in 1969 to help preserve the history of jazz in Chicago and continues to preserve that history but to also bring jazz and other types of music to new audiences through events and educational programs.

Born Lott, Texas, on December 31, 1928, Prince Shell learned how to play piano mostly by listening to records and the radio. His family moved to Chicago and he attended DuSable High School and studied trumpet, alto sax, and valve trombone. He later attended Tennessee State University and played with the Tennessee State Collegians band.

After college, he returned to Chicago and played and toured with Gene Ammons. In the 1950s, he joined the Air Force and was the head arranger for its dance band. After touring in countries across the world in the 1960s, he returned to Chicago and became the house pianist for the Regal Theatre, where he played with artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown. In 1970, Shell arranged and recorded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's "Operation Breadbasket Orchestra and Choir" for Chess Records. Shell moved to Phoenix in 1971 and continued to write and perform.

Prince Shell died in 2007.