Bobby Stark

{{Short description | American jazz trumpeter and featured soloist}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Bobby Stark

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1906|01|06}}

| birth_place = New York, United States

| origin = United States

| death_date = {{death date and age|1945|12|29|1906|01|06}}

| death_place = New York, United States

| genre = Jazz

| occupation = Trumpeter

| instrument = Trumpet

| years_active = 1920s–1945

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Bobby Stark (January 6, 1906 – December 29, 1945){{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=2365}} was an American jazz trumpeter.

Stark started playing music at age 15 and played piano, clarinet, saxophone, and alto horn before deciding on trumpet.{{Cite web|title=Bobby Stark {{!}} Biography & History|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bobby-stark-mn0000077608/biography|access-date=2020-09-08|website=AllMusic|language=en-us}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Pre-Chick Webb Recordings of Bobby Stark|url=http://www.harlem-fuss.com/pdf/soloists/harlem_fuss_soloists_stark_bobby.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191010074346/http://harlem-fuss.com/pdf/soloists/harlem_fuss_soloists_stark_bobby.pdf |archive-date=2019-10-10 |access-date=|website=}} In the mid-1920s he played with June Clark (1925), Edgar Dowell, Leon Abbey, Duncan Mayers, Bobbie Brown, Bobby Lee, Billy Butler, Charles Turner, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and Chick Webb, the last in 1926-27.

From 1927 to 1933, he played in Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra as a featured soloist.{{Cite web|last=Yanow|first=Scott|title=Fletcher Henderson – A Study In Frustration – The Syncopated Times|url=https://syncopatedtimes.com/fletcher-henderson-a-study-in-frustration/|access-date=2020-09-08|website=syncopatedtimes.com|date=May 2016 |language=en-US}} He returned to duty under Chick Webb behind Taft Jordan from 1934 to 1939. After Webb's death, he remained in the orchestra, now under the direction of Ella Fitzgerald.{{Cite web|last=Montgomery|first=R. Connor|date=2016-04-25|title=Decca 1840 – Chick Webb and his Orchestra – 1938|url=http://oldtimeblues.net/2016/04/25/decca-1840-chick-webb-and-his-orchestra-1938/|access-date=2020-09-08|website=Old Time Blues|language=en-US}} In 1940, he left the group to freelance. In 1942-43, he served in the Army. Sharp then played with Garvin Bushell (1944) and Benny Morton shortly before his death, in New York, at the age of 39. He never led his own recording session.