Jackie McLean - 'Bout Soul [1967/FLAC]

 'Bout Soul is an album by American saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded in 1967 and released on the Blue Note label.It features McLean in a quintet with trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianist LaMont Johnson, bassist Scotty Holt and drummer Rashied Ali. Trombonist Grachan Moncur III guests on three tracks, and Barbara Simmons recites the words on “Soul”.

Personnel

•     Jackie McLean – alto saxophone
•     Woody Shaw – trumpet (tracks 1–3, 5 & 6)
•     Grachan Moncur III – trombone (tracks 1, 2 & 5)
•     LaMont Johnson – piano
•     Scotty Holt – bass
•     Rashied Ali – drums
•     Barbara Simmons – recitation (track 1)

1.     "Soul" (Grachan Moncur III, Barbara Simmons) - 10:17
2.     "Conversion Point" (Jackie McLean) - 9:47
3.     "Big Ben's Voice" (LaMont Johnson) - 10:08
4.     "Dear Nick, Dear John" (Scotty Holt) - 4:56
5.     "Erdu" (Johnson) - 5:57
6.     "Big Ben's Voice" [Alternate take] - 9:55 Bonus track on CD reissue

Woody Shaw - The Complete Muse Sessions (7 CD, 2013/FLAC)

 

Mosaic's 2013 Woody Shaw box set The Complete Muse Sessions brings together all of the albums the innovative jazz trumpeter recorded for the label during the 1970s and later in the 1980s. Largely out of print since their initial release, save for a number of reissues on the now defunct 32 Jazz label, these Muse albums represent not only some of the most important recordings of Shaw's career, but some of the most influential and individualistic artistic statements by a jazz artist in the 20th century. With his combination of technical prowess and knowledge of the jazz tradition, as well as a keen harmonic vision for where to take his music and jazz as a whole into the future, Woody Shaw was a towering if often underappreciated figure during his lifetime. Taking inspiration from his slightly older contemporary, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, innovators like John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy, as well as longtime friend and collaborator pianist Larry Young, Shaw developed an extremely original conception for how to improvise and compose jazz. Beginning with 1974's The Moontrane and moving through 1975's Love Dance, 1976's Concert Ensemble Live at the Berliner Jazztage, 1976's Little Red's Fantasy, and 1977's Iron Men, the box set showcases Shaw's mastery of the wide harmonic intervals and pentatonic scale developments he'd imbibed from his musical compatriots, as well as his love of the avant-garde -- both classical and jazz. In that way, these '70s albums are the bridge between the hard bop of the '60s and the free jazz of the '70s.

 

Woody Shaw - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (6 CD, 2011/FLAC)

The Complete Columbia Albums Collection combines all five of jazz trumpeter Woody Shaw's albums on Columbia, including 1977's Rosewood, 1978's Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard, 1978's Woody III, 1980's For Sure!, and 1981's United. Also featured is a sixth disc of never before released bonus tracks from the live Stepping Stones sessions. These albums represent the height of Shaw's creative output of the late '70s and early '80s, during a time in which he combined modal jazz, post-bop, fusion, and avant-garde improvisation into his own uniquely propulsive, melodic, and harmonically advanced style. Of all the albums, Rosewood is perhaps best known, as it earned Shaw a Grammy nomination and was voted Best Jazz Album of 1978 in the Down Beat Readers Poll. Not only do these albums showcase the technically proficient and improvisationally gifted Shaw in his prime, they also feature such sidemen as saxophonists Joe Henderson, Carter Jefferson, and Gary Bartz; pianists Onaje Allan Gumbs, Larry Willis, and Mulgrew Miller; drummers Victor Lewis and Tony Reedus; bassists Clint Houston and Buster Williams; and -- as on United -- the then young trombonist Steve Turre. These are not only must-hear albums for Shaw fans, but also required listening for any fans of forward-thinking post-bop.

 

CD1 - Rosewood (1977) {40:56}

CD2 - Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard (1978) {70:34}

CD3 - Stepping Stones: Bonus Tracks (1978) {70:07}

CD4 - Woody III (1979) {36:01}

CD5 - For Sure! (1980) {49:12}

CD6 - United (1981) {40:41}

 

Woody Shaw - The Complete CBS Studio Recordings (3 CD, 1992/FLAC)

 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…