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Jazz Articles about Bobby Shew
Jim Doherty: Jim Doherty's Spondance
by Ian Patterson
Jim Doherty never lacked ambition, but a suite for jazz ballet or even jazz dance was always going to be a difficult sell in '80s Ireland. All was not lost for the pianist and composer, however. A few strings pulled here and there saw Doherty and his long- term collaborator, Louis Stewart decamp to Los Angeles, where they spent two days with top session musicians. One day of rehearsals and another in the recording studio resulted in Spondance, a jazz ...
Continue ReadingMarkus Gottschlich: Found Sounds
by Jack Bowers
Found Sounds? As it turns out, there is a special story behind that. For four years leading up to this recording, Austrian-born pianist Markus Gottschlich preserved “sounds" he heard around the world using a binaural mic and hand-held recording device. He writes that one thing he found was that “sounds, more than any other sensory stimulus" sparked his imagination and set his creative juices in motion. He has incorporated a number of those sounds into the nine original compositions on ...
Continue ReadingBobby Shew / Bill Mays: Telepathy
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Trumpet and piano duo albums are relatively rare. Louis Armstrong and Earl “Fatha" Hines' “Weather Bird" (1928) was a groundbreaker, although a single. Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie (Pablo, 1974) and Clark Terry's One on One (Chesky Records, 1999), where CT played with fourteen different jazz pianists, come to mind. Telepathy, a horn-piano collaboration featuring trumpeter Bobby Shew and pianist Bill Mays, continues the tradition—and, brilliantly so. Originally recorded in 1978 and released in 1982, the session is an exploration ...
Continue ReadingBobby Shew with the University of Florida Jazz Band: Bobby Shew - Live 1983
by Dan Bilawsky
What once was lost, now is found. Scott Wilson, head of the jazz studies program at the University of Florida, recently discovered this recording of a concert from 1983 that features Bobby Shew as the guest soloist with the University of Florida Jazz Band, then under the direction of Gary Langford. And what a find it is. Shew's creative soloing and stratospheric statements merge seamlessly with this tight band, an outfit that can pack a mean wallop when the music ...
Continue ReadingBobby Shew / The Kjell : I Can't Say No
by Jack Bowers
Brilliance can be a blessing or a curse. Some musicians make excellence seem so easy that hardly anyone is surprised by another superlative performance, simply accepting it as a matter of course. As Exhibit A, there’s trumpeter Bobby Shew, who has been around for years, paid his dues in groups both large and small, has a lovely sound, remarkable technique, and seems incapable of fashioning a less-than-rewarding musical experience. In other words, he’s good, so good that his artistry is ...
Continue ReadingBobby Shew, Gary Foster and Friends: Play The Music Of Reed Kotler
by Jim Santella
It's a refreshing, straight-ahead quintet that interprets these songs by San Francisco Bay area composer Reed Kotler. All five members of the quintet solo throughout this 2-CD set; but it's the distinctive, front line work of Bobby Shew and Gary Foster that thrills. Shew provided the musical arrangements. As his schedule reveals, the trumpeter is noted for his work all over the world as a brass clinician. Here, on this album, Shew's big bold tone and exciting technique provide adventure. ...
Continue ReadingBobby Shew: The Music of John Harmon
by Jack Bowers
Composer / arranger / pianist John Harmon has been associated with Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, for more than forty years as student and educator, and was the first director of the university’s Jazz Studies program. To honor Harmon’s many contributions, the music department brought together the university’s Jazz, Trumpet and Wind Ensembles and Symphony Orchestra to perform Harmon’s music with guest trumpeter Bobby Shew who also takes part in half a dozen duets with Harmon at the piano. Harmon, ...
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