Ian Shaw: From Free Jazz to Noel Coward

Bruce Lindsay

CD/DVD Reviewer since 2008

Bruce is the author of the blog Delicious Hot Disgusting Cold, and the photoseries "It's Not How It Sounds".

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Published: December 1, 2009

Ian Shaw That album was Ghostsongs (Ronnie Scott's Jazzhouse, 1995). "Right in at the deep end," says Shaw, "but it still sells. I don't really sing like that anymore, but I went straight into it. There were bits of Betty Carter and [British free jazz vocalist] Phil Minton Phil Minton
b.1940
vocal ." The influence of Minton is another unexpected aspect of Shaw's development, but he is not the only influence to come from the British avant-garde. Saxophonist Lol Coxhill Lol Coxhill
b.1932
sax, soprano also affected Shaw positively: "Lol Coxhill and I used to do duo gigs, and his playing really influenced my singing. He'd do a solo, then I'd do a solo with my voice sounding like his instrument. So rather than learning the bebop stuff, initially I started at the free end of jazz. However, I was obsessed with chordal structures and decided I needed to turn my work into something I could sustain."

The next group of singers to influence Shaw came from less unexpected quarters: he name-checks Al Jarreau Al Jarreau
b.1940
vocal , Jon Hendricks Jon Hendricks
b.1921
vocal , and Sarah Vaughan Sarah Vaughan
1924 - 1990
vocal , among others. "I got to work with quite a few: in fact I worked with Jon Hendricks again only last week [as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations for Ronnie Scott's Club]." In terms of technique, Shaw was particularly influenced by Madeline Bell Madeline Bell
b.1942
vocal , whom he met while working in Spain. Bell has had a long and successful career as a session vocalist and as a singer in hit bands such as Blue Mink. She is now a close friend of Shaw's: "I love her and her sound," he declares. Blues singer Carol Grimes, with whom he guested on Lazy Blue Eyes (Offbeat Records, 1990), was another important influence for Shaw, who describes her as "a fascinating woman and a good friend."

This mixture of influences is unique, but not part of a plan on Shaw's part. "It's just what was around. I wasn't a jazz teenager. It's different now, with college jazz courses, but I never heard jazz in college. I had to go and look for it. I spent all my grant money in [London music shop] Dobell's. All my influences came to me purely by accident." This serendipitous jazz education also happened back home in Wales, where the singer's father worked as a furniture removal man and would often come home with boxes of unwanted records from house clearances. "He brought home 20 Aretha Franklin Aretha Franklin

vocal albums one week," Shaw remembers. "All sorts of influences came my way."

By the mid '90s, Shaw was beginning to release his own albums, following on from Ghostsongs. The albums are characterized by their variety and unpredictability. On some, Shaw plays piano himself. On others, he uses guest pianists—Cedar Walton Cedar Walton
b.1934
piano being one distinguished example, co-leading 1999's In A New York Minute (Fantasy). Most albums include songs from a range of writers, including Shaw, but they are not always composers who are immediately associated with jazz. Some recordings feature a variety of different musicians, while others use just three or four musicians across the entire album—2009 album Somewhere Towards Love (Splash Point Records) is a solo recording.

Shaw is happy to talk about all of his recordings, but not always in glowing terms: "I've done one crap album," he says with refreshing honesty, "called Taking It To Heart (Ronnie Scott's Jazzhouse, 1995), which is just diabolical." The singer does not blame label owner Scott for this failure: indeed, he has a great deal of respect for Scott. "He was really helpful. I was on his label for 4 years. He put together a great album—The Echo Of A Song (Ronnie Scott's Jazzhouse, 1996). I used to play Ronnie's club regularly, and we hit it off, saw eye-to-eye. He suggested doing an album of songs that I grew up with, and that's what we did. We did a lot of research and recorded in a simple context, and it worked really well."

Ian Shaw At around the same time as The Echo Of A Song, Shaw recorded an album of more contemporary material: Famous Rainy Day (EFZ Records, 1995). The album is planned for re-release on Splashpoint Records in 2010, which is clearly a source of great pleasure for Shaw: "The original record label went bust about six weeks after the album came out, so only about 5,000 copies were pressed. ... All these things come full-circle, though."

"Songs are stories, aren't they? I'm an actor, a comedian, I perform. I can't just stand there with my eyes closed and hope that the audience is going to come with me, just like that. I'm not a cabaret singer either. ... I just like to show people the songs, really. I'm also a jazz singer, so the music is as important as the lyric. Every single song I've recorded, I love."

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