Woody Shaw

Woody Shaw formed his second great quintet in late 1980 with Steve Turre, Mulgrew Miller, Stafford James and Tony Reedus. The band lasted only until July 1983, so every discovered recorded performance by them is a gem to be savored. The reason for the absence of Steve Turre in this concert, who was on this tour with the group, is lost in time. But it gives us a chance to hear Woody in the challenging context of being the only horn in the group. This is an essential performance in his legacy.

This LP would be recommended if only for trumpeter Woody Shaw's autobiographical liner notes which definitively sum up both this recording and his career up to 1972. Four of Shaw's originals are interpreted by a sextet also including Emanuel Boyd on flute and tenor, keyboardist George Cables, bassist Henry Franklin, drummer Woodrow Theus II, tenorman Ramon Morris (on two songs) and Bennie Maupin on tenor for "The Goat And The Archer." The music falls between hard bop, modal musings and the avant-garde. Although possessing a tone similar to Freddie Hubbard's, Woody Shaw was a more advanced player and his solos throughout the date are both original and consistently exciting.

This CD serves as a perfect introduction to the memorable but always underrated trumpeter Woody Shaw, who tragically had only three years left to live. Sticking to jazz standards (including "There Will Never Be Another You," a ten-minute rendition of "It Might as Well Be Spring," and a surprisingly effective up-tempo romp through "The Woody Woodpecker Song"), Shaw is heard in a quartet with pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Neil Swainson, and drummer Victor Jones, leading a quintet on two numbers with the up-and-coming altoist Kenny Garrett, and welcoming guest guitarist Peter Leitch to a sextet rendition of Sonny Rollins' "Solid." A gem.

Russian-born trumpeter Alex Sipiagin's tenth recording as a leader apart from his chores with the Mingus Big Band gives homage to his first and greatest influence, Woody Shaw. On this split program of originals and selections from Shaw's repertoire, Sipiagin plays a more basic brass horn than did his highly advanced, harmonically futuristic idol, but there's an added wrinkle to this program that Shaw never really explored. Electric guitarist Adam Rogers is along for the ride, drastically morphing these tunes to a fusion style that Shaw only touched upon - refer to the early-'70s album Blackstone Legacy. In sparser frameworks, Sipiagin and this piano-less quartet bring new meaning to Shaw's influential music, which has stood the test of time for some four decades…