The bulk of Shaw's great sessions were recorded for independent labels (Muse & Contemporary,) ensuring them widespread critical evaluation but little audience except with the hardcore faithful. Things seemed about to change in the late '70s when Miles Davis suggested to Columbia that they record Shaw's group. They actually took his suggestion and signed Shaw. He issued a string of remarkable but low-selling records, and Columbia cut him loose after four years and four albums. They compounded the crime by deleting the records shortly after Shaw departed. Mosaic has corrected that slight with another of their marvelously produced and comprehensively notated and packaged box sets. This three-disc collection covers Shaw's Columbia sessions. While it is sad that Shaw's stay at Columbia was not more personally beneficial, it was quite musically productive.
Trumpeter Woody Shaw flourished when jazz didn`t, a pity for both. He found a steady, distinctive voice built on a set of coherent ideas new to his instrument and he offered them to an audience most interested in electronics and extremes.
Nonetheless, he was able to leave something behind when he died in 1989 after a long, painful physical and emotional slide. From 1977 to 1981 he recorded for CBS, and Mosaic Records has resurrected the work with care.
Some of it suffers the pretentiousness of the times (particularly the early pieces in the collection), but even they are models of restraint compared with what others were doing at the time. Most of the tunes are straight ahead and intriguing. It is good that Woody Shaw did not have to be totally forgotten before he was remembered.
Personnel: Woody Shaw (tp, flg), Joe Henderson (ts), Frank Wess (fl, picc), Curtis Fuller (tb), Art Webb (fl), James Vass (ss, as), Rene McLean (ss, ts), Carter Jefferson (ss, ts), Steve Turre (tb, b tb), Janice Robinson (tb), Onaje Allan Gumbs (p, elec p), Clint Houston (b), Victor Lewis (d), Sammy Figueroa (congas), Armen Halburian (perc), Lois Colin (harp), Mulgrew Miller (p), Stafford James (b), Tony Reedus (d) and others…
Disc 1
1. The Legend of the Cheops (6:05)
2. Rosewood (7:12)
3. Everytime I See You (7:13)
4. Sunshowers (7:47)
5. Rahsaan's Run (5:10)
6. Theme for Maxine (7:15)
7. Woody I (7:15)
8. Woody II (6:50)
9. Woody III (8:28)
Disc 2
1. To Kill a Brick (7:40)
2. Organ Grinder (5:30)
3. We'll Be Together Again (5:43)
4. Time Is Right (4:25)
5. Why? (4:47)
6. Joshua C. (7:10)
7. Teotihuacan (7:10)
8. Isabel, the Liberator (8:25)
9. Ginseng People (5:28)
10. Opec (5:22)
Disc 3
1. United (5:18)
2. Pressing the Issue (7:02)
3. Katrina Ballerina (5:38)
4. The Greene Street Caper (5:28)
5. What Is This Thing Called Love? (9:46)
6. Blues for Wood (7:18)
