Jazz Articles about Woody Shaw

Woody Shaw: Dark Journey

by Robert Spencer
January 1, 1998

Dark Journey is a 2-CD compilation of some of the best recordings by the great trumpeter Woody Shaw. Tracks are gathered from recordings dating from 1965 to 1987, and most impressive is the breadth of the guest list: Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Cedar Walton, Kenny Garrett, J. J. Johnson, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver, Larry Young, Elvin Jones, Herbie Hancock, Paul Chambers, and Ron Carter, along with Shavians like Steve Turre and Onaje Allen Gumbs.

Anyone unfamiliar with the astoundingly ...

Woody Shaw: Last of the Line

by Robert Spencer
January 1, 1998

Last of the Line is a 2-CD reissue of two excellent albums by the chronically underrated trumpeter Woody Shaw: Cassandranite and Love Dance. Cassandranite is a self-produced 1965 (with one track from 1971) session with Joe Henderson on tenor. Larry Young is also present, on piano (not organ), for “Cassandranite" and “Obsequious," after which he gives way to a pulsing Herbie Hancock for “Baloo Baloo," “Three Muses," and “Tetragon." Ron Carter plays bass behind Young, Mr. P. C. (Paul Chambers) ...

Woody Shaw: The Moontrane

by Robert Spencer
January 1, 1998

In a genre full of tragically short-lived performers, Woody Shaw's story is exceptionally tragic. Legally blind and beset with emotional problems, he was killed in a subway accident in 1989 without ever attaining the recognition attentive listeners knew he deserved. The Mosaic box set of his Columbia recordings a few years ago placed him in a linear development of trumpet players between Hubbard and Marsalis; this was, no doubt, a highly questionable analysis (mainly because it left out Miles Davis ...