Music Monday: Woody Shaw

I know that I said that I would probably be posting less this summer and trying to be a bit more disciplined in my attention to work. So far, on day 1, I’m not reading an article that I should be reviewing and instead, I’m here, on the ole blog, writing about Woody Shaw.

I’m not entirely sure why I overlooked trumpeter Woody Shaw’s music, but in the week before my summer research trip began, I was really enjoying Shaw’s album Blackstone Legacy. Shaw’s trumpet is sharp and incisive, and Bennie Maupin’s saxophone and clarinet are inspired. George Cables adds some electric piano at the right times to make this feel like an album from 1971 and Clint Houston’s electric bass complements Rob Carter’s acoustic bass. (For what it’s worth, I didn’t know Cables, Houston, and drummer Lenny White were a Slug’s Saloons house band!).

I rediscovered Shaw’s playing while listening to a few Larry Young albums and Shaw’s trumpet on Unity (1965) is just outstanding:

And now, I need to go and check out Pharoah Sander’s Deaf Dumb Blind: Summum, Bukmum, Umyun (1970) again to listen to Shaw’s playing there:

Keen readers of this blog, will probably remember that I nodded appreciatively toward Tyrone Washington’s Natural Essence from 1968 which also features some find playing by Shaw:

I’m not going to promise that I’ll somehow be more disciplined this summer, but as a step toward a new more careful version of myself, I also won’t promise that I won’t find some discipline!