Credits:

Woody Shaw

Description:

I am happy to see that a number of previously unreleased performances of Woody Shaw have been unearthed in recent years. Woody was a good rival of Freddie Hubbard, but while Freddie had some difficulty in establishing "his own voice" due to his great technical skill, Woody established his own phrasing with a larger pitch interval at a young age and won high acclaim with a more sharp-angled and thrilling style than Freddie. Woody's original phrasing, with its large intervals between notes, was highly acclaimed at a young age. Woody began leading his own groups in the mid-1970s, and this CD is a live performance from 1982 at Onkel Po's Carnegie Hall in Hamburg, Germany, featuring Steve Turre, Mulgrew Miller, Stafford James, and Tony Harris. The quintet, which includes Steve Toole, Mulgrew Miller, Stafford James, and Tony Reedus, gives a performance that is full of energy.The quintet first met on the March 7, 1981 Columbia release of "United," and from that time until early 1983, they recorded a number of excellent albums for the enja, Elektra Musician, and Red labels. The performances on this disc complement these works, and the quintet's charms are fully conveyed in this collection. All four songs are Woody's own originals that have been performed on other albums, but the passion of the live performance makes them even more impressive than the original versions.