Home » Jazz News » Recording

Woody Shaw: Muse Box

JazzWax by Marc Myers Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

View read count
Woody Shaw
Woody Shaw was the last of the statement trumpeters. Deeply influenced by Freddie Hubbard's blistering attack on the instrument, Shaw began his recording career in 1963 during a highly charged and transitional period in this country. His compositions, arrangements and playing style were highly personal and mirrored the frustration that many jazz artists felt given the slow pace of civil rights, a government determined to wage an unpopular war and an art form that no longer held the same status it did just five years earlier.

Hard bop had been around for about 10 years by 1963 but was somewhat adrift—eclipsed by freer forms of jazz expressed by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Chicago's  avant-garde artists. And given the soaring popularity of British bands, folk artists, Motown and other forms aimed at teens with portable phonographs, jazz as an art form was being bested by musicians with a fraction of their skills but championed by an industry hot on the scent of profits.

As the '60s turned into the '70s, jazz began to panic. The imaginations and libidos of millions of college age teens were being stirred by soul, rock, disco and punk albums—leaving jazz musicians scrambling. Older jazz audiences didn't want to hear anything new and while most younger listeners found new forms of jazz exciting, they also found it tedious and relentlessly gloomy.

Some jazz musicians tried to appeal to the youth culture by embracing jazz-rock fusion while others moved toward the orchestral soul-jazz movement spearheaded by CTI Records. As the two camps divided, Woody Shaw was in the middle—retaining the spirit of hard bop but moving the jazz trumpet toward a hotter, more expressive, conversational place.

If you listen carefully to Shaw's playing in the '70s, you can hear a political statement about decaying times, the unwinding social fabric and despair over jazz's diminished worthiness and dissolving future. On Shaw'sThe Moontrane, Joe Bonner's Love Dance and Larry Young's Obsequious, you hear Shaw's energy and anxiety, ambition and struggle.

Shaw's creative journey through the '70s and '80s can be heard on the new Woody Shaw: The Complete Music Sessions (Mosaic). Shaw began to record for Muse in 1974, just as rock, soul and disco began to command a powerful place in the music business. Jazz was too heady for most kids who had just started dating, owned stereo systems, had cassette decks in car glove compartments and were in search of a good time. To Shaw's credit, he remained a jazz purist throughout his Muse years (up until 1987)—using his horn as if delivering a fiery sermon. 

What's also fascinating about Shaw's playing on his nine Muse albums is that it can be brutish and conversational without ever being harsh or didactic. His blowing during this period was as novelistic as it was insistent. The albums here also show Shaw attempting to take jazz and the jazz trumpet to new places.

As Woody Shaw III's liner notes to the set point out, his father's music can be grouped into three different periods: The Moontrane (1974), Love Dance (1975) and The Woody Shaw Concert Ensemble Live at the Berliner Jazztage (1976), featuring an orchestral frame for Shaw's trumpet; Cassandranite (1965), Little Red's Fantasy (1976) and The Iron Men (1977) feature a quintet; and Setting Standards (1985), Solid (1986) and Imagination (1987) showcase Shaw playing standards following his Columbia period. 

Of the groupings, I favor the quintet dates. While The Moontrane certainly establishes Shaw as a brilliant composer and player, Little Red's Fantasy remains my favorite. There's a mood and energy on the album that is pure poetry.

By the '80s, jazz was returning to its acoustic roots after an extended dalliance with psychedelic rock, and Muse looked to cash in Shaw's standards albums. This detour isn't detrimental. Quite the contrary, since Shaw's shift gives us an opportunity to hear his phrasing and intonation on familiar material.

If there's a story arc in this Shaw box, it's Shaw trying to break artistic ground while fighting off trends undoing the music. It's the story of how a young artist developed a style despite internal and external pressures to jump ship and how he advanced jazz in the process.

What we hear on the Muse box is Shaw as the last artist standing, fighting to hatch a new jazz style against all odds. Though jazz would soon go smooth and repertory with the advent of the CD and concert orchestra, Shaw remained the last jazz patriot—wholly convinced that there was still more to say. Shaw died in 1989 at age 44 of kidney failure. He's sorely missed, and one can only imagine the exciting contribution he would be making today had he lived. 

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Woody Shaw: The Complete Muse Sessions (Mosaic), a seven-disc box set, here.

Continue Reading...

This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved.

About Woody Shaw

Woody Shaw

Profile | Articles | Albums | Photos | Similar To | Orbit

Tags

Recording Woody Shaw JazzWax by Marc Myers AAJ Staff


News

Popular

Julie Slim Releases New Album Suspended
Recording
Julie Slim Releases New Album Suspended
Olivia Long PR
Estonian Pianist Rahel Talts Returns With New Trio Album 'Tacos And Other Things'
Recording
Estonian Pianist Rahel Talts Returns With New Trio Album 'Tacos And Other Things'
Jazzfuel
Trombonist, Composer, And Jazz Provocateur Andrew Danforth Effortlessly Blends Disparate Textures In Extraordinary New Album
Recording
Trombonist, Composer, And Jazz Provocateur Andrew Danforth Effortlessly Blends Disparate Textures In...
Adhyâropa Public Relations
Asef Releases 'Confluence,' Blending Middle Eastern Musical Traditions With Contemporary Jazz
Recording
Asef Releases 'Confluence,' Blending Middle Eastern Musical Traditions With Contemporary Jazz
Saul Berson
Bassist And Composer Adam Chilenski Returns To His Roots With Long-awaited Debut Release
Recording
Bassist And Composer Adam Chilenski Returns To His Roots With Long-awaited Debut Release
Adhyâropa Public Relations
Saxophonist David Ehrlin And Guitarist Neff Irizarry Release 'Softly Light'
Recording
Saxophonist David Ehrlin And Guitarist Neff Irizarry Release 'Softly Light'
Jazzfuel
Tennishu Brings Jazz Improvisation And Hip-hop Together On New Album American Bullshit, Out November 13
Recording
Tennishu Brings Jazz Improvisation And Hip-hop Together On New Album American Bullshit, Out November...
Marcus Tenney
Now Available: Ryan Keberle's Collectiv Do Brasil's Fourth Album 'Here Is Donato!' Celebrating The Music Of Brazilian Master Joao Donato
Recording
Now Available: Ryan Keberle's Collectiv Do Brasil's Fourth Album 'Here Is Donato!' Celebrating The...
AMT Public Relations

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletters highlight our top stories, top album reviews, website news, free songs, radio & podcast shows, news, and upcoming jazz events near you.