Home » Jazz Articles » Woody Shaw
Jazz Articles about Woody Shaw
Woody Shaw: Love Dance
by Jack Kenny
With Time Travelers, Zev Feldman injects new life into Muse Records, the label founded by Joe Fields in 1972. Muse offered a platform to artists who were often in danger of being overlooked or forgotten by major record companies. Feldman, renowned for his lavishly produced archival releases, has brought the same care and vision to this new series.The Time Travelers series launched in October 2025 with three releases: drummer Roy Brooks's 1972 live album The Free Slave; pianist ...
Continue ReadingRoy Brooks: The Free Slave
by Pierre Giroux
Roy Brooks's The Free Slave, newly reissued on Time Traveler Recordings as a 180-gram vinyl LP, stands as a passionate tribute to the drummer's remarkable artistry and his often overlooked role as one of the most rhythmic thinkers of the post-bop period. Recorded live by Muse Records on April 26, 1970, at Baltimore's renowned Left Bank Jazz Society, the session features Brooks leading a stellar quintet that includes trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, pianist Hugh Lawson, and bassist ...
Continue ReadingEric Dolphy: At Five Spot to Iron Man Revisited
by Alberto Bazzurro
Riunire in un unico CD di quasi ottanta minuti due capolavori cosa determina? Un capolavoro al quadrato, ovviamente, ed è quanto avviene in questo album semplicemente maestoso, i cui primi tre brani riprendono il live inciso al Five Spot il 16 luglio 1961 dal quintetto da favola riunito per l'occasione da Eric Dolphy, all'epoca trentatreenne, il cui nome iniziava finalmente a circolare con una certa insistenza nel mondo del jazz anche al di là dei colleghi che già ne conoscevano ...
Continue ReadingBlackstone Legacy
by C. Andrew Hovan
When trumpeter Woody Shaw passed away in 1989, he left behind a wealth of amazing music, notwithstanding the realized sadness inherent in wondering what more he could have accomplished had he lived a longer life. Back in the mid '60s, Shaw was ubiquitous as a sideman recording iconic albums with the likes of Larry Young, Horace Silver, Chick Corea, Art Blakey, and McCoy Tyner. Despite common misconceptions, Shaw led his first date as a leader in December of 1965, which ...
Continue ReadingLive? From the Village Vanguard
by Patrick Burnette
There are many storied jazz venues, but for a great recorded legacy, none quite matches the Village Vanguard. So many epochal improvised moments put to tape! So many clinking wine glasses captured for eternity! Such a matchless, smoky atmosphere of creation in the heat of the moment! (Insert record scratch here.) The boys don't look at the best known monuments from the place, but rather start with a lesser known session from the end of the seventies and then examine ...
Continue ReadingHorace Silver: Live New York Revisited
by Stefano Merighi
Benchè il profilo artistico di Horace Silver sia preso a modello in modo paradigmatico per definire lo stile hard bop nel jazz moderno, è altresì interessante notare come Silver, sin dalle sue prime uscite, abbia sempre cercato di evitare gli schemi predeterminati che soprattutto le etichette discografiche cercavano di replicare dopo aver trovato la formula del successo. Ad esempio, Silver non amava le scalette miste, quelle cioè che infilavano d'abitudine uno standard proveniente da Tin Pan Alley all'interno di un ...
Continue ReadingHorace Silver Quintet: Live New York Revisited
by Chris May
This fabulous album, recorded during three New York club engagements in 1964, 1965 and 1966, ranks among the finest in the pianist/composer's illustrious catalogue. There are several things going for it: the quality and shared intentionality of the two, slightly different, lineups; the choice of material and its careful sequencing; the vibrancy of the performances, which is enough to practically raise the dead; and the quality of the CD mastering by the ezz-thetics label's sonic jedi Michael Brändli, whose work ...
Continue Reading
