Das hatte wie es scheint niemand auf dem Schirm … die grosse Frage ist natürlich: gibt’s das nur, weil Cuscuna damals involviert war und Woody Shaw ihm bekanntlich eine Herzensangelegenheit ist, oder heisst das, dass Mosaic neuerdings auch auf andere Muse-Alben Zugriff hat (Albumliste)?
Jedenfalls ist die Musik aus den Siebzigern wohl das beste, was es von Shaw als Leader gibt, besser als die Columbias, die es ja auch wieder gesammelt gibt, nachdem die Studio-Sessions auch schon ein erstes Mal von Cuscuna/Mosaic aus der Versenkung geholt worden waren. Die drei Alben aus den Achtzigern sind dann weniger essentiell, aber schlecht ist auch von ihnen keines.
Alben wie The Moontrane, Love Dance, Little Red’s Fantasy und The Woody Shaw Concert Ensemble gehören zum Besten, was es in Sachen Postbop gibt. Zudem gibt’s das Album, mit dem Shaw der Avantgarde so nahe kam, wie sonst nie: „Iron Man“ (siehe Link zu „Concert Ensemble“). Und auch die Demo-Sessions, die später als „Cassandranite“ erschienen sind, sind da (siehe Link zu „Love Dance“).
Die drei späteren Alben sind Setting Standards (das ich gerne mag), Solid, sowie Imagination.
Und ich hoffe selbstverständlich, dass Mosaic die tollen Cover-Designs der verlinkten 32Jazz-Reissues wiederverwendet :lol:
Der Text unten stammt von:
http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=255-MD-CD
(Ich setze keine Quote-Tags, dieses verpixelte Kursivzeugs kann man ja nicht lesen)
Die Diskographie gibt’s auch bereits, vorbestellbar ist die Box ebenfalls schon:
http://www.mosaicrecords.com/discography.asp?number=255-MD-CD&price=$119.00&copies=7%20CDs
The Set That Could Make Woody Shaw Your Favorite Trumpeter In Jazz
If you are familiar with Mosaic, you know about our passion for jazz. Our bred-in-the-bones need to „get it right.“ Our devotion to perfection in every detail. And when we are able, our conviction to expose the injustice of greatness overlooked.
We are delighted to have a second opportunity to print the name „Woody Shaw“ across a Mosaic set, this time for his Muse recordings spanning nearly his entire creative life. (Our set #142 — his Complete Columbia Studio recordings which chronologically came in-between the Muse dates from the seventies and eighties — sold out long ago.)
Included in the new collection are the mid- to late-1970s recordings that established his musical identity, and saw him break through as an inspiring and influential musician and bandleader. Also included are the Muse sets from his return to the label from 1983 through 1987, where as a mature musician he displayed his range on the instrument and his appreciation for music of many jazz disciplines. The „Complete Muse“ concept allows us also to present Woody’s very first set from 1965 when he was just 20 years old. Originally recorded for Blue Note but returned to Woody by Alfred Lion when the record company founder experienced remorse over selling his label, it became a Muse set years later.
He was denied fame more than once. Woody hit his prime when fusion was the rage and there was no cohesive jazz scene to support his career and recognize his innovations. A freak subway accident led to the kidney failure that claimed his life in 1989, far too early for his genius to be sufficiently appreciated by the public.
A Musicians‘ Musician
But if fans of the music do not often mention his name, the players know and remember.
Frequent collaborator and friend, the saxophonist Gary Bartz, called him „the next step that began with Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden and King Oliver, followed by Dizzy, Roy Eldridge and Miles and then by Lee Morgan and Clifford Brown, and the next step was Woody.“ Lester Bowie of the Art Ensemble of Chicago has said, „I think of Woody as one of the great neglected talents of this century.“ Freddie Hubbard, the trumpeter with whom Woody is often too flippantly compared and who collaborated with him in the 1980s, simply said „Woody was bad.“ And no less an authority and critic than Miles Davis said, „There’s a great trumpet player… He can play different from all of them.“
Evidence that his intelligence and curiosity would lead to great things started early.
Many Ways To Play
There were so many ways Woody could approach a tune. He would slip in and out of a modal approach and play within the chord. Or lay other key signatures on top of what the band was playing, resolving dissonance at just the right moment to make it all coherent.
A flawless attack and roundness of tone throughout the instrument’s register, top to bottom, are other hallmarks of his playing, and made his ballad work bell-like and passionate. Numbers that demanded a more hard bop interpretation got an urgent and driving propulsion from Woody’s ability to push out incredibly intricate runs at blinding speeds.
Woody Shaw provides one of the best examples in jazz history of someone who ceaselessly accepted the temptation jazz presents to approach with wonder and confidence, expecting danger — and triumphed over it.
A student of great bandleaders, Woody became one himself, and these sessions provide ample evidence of that from three different eras. The earliest session, from his tenure as a Blue Note stable player, includes Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Paul Chambers and Joe Chambers. The 1970s sets include Steve Turre, Azar Lawrence, Onaje Allan Gumbs, Buster Williams, Victor Lewis, Cecil McBee, Rene McLean, Billy Harper, Joe Bonner, Frank Strozier, Ronnie Matthews, Stafford James, Eddie Moore, Frank Foster, Louis Hayes, Arthur Blythe, Anthony Braxton, and Muhal Richard Abrams, among others. In the 1980s, he played with Cedar Walton, Victor Jones, Kenny Garrett, Kenny Barron, and others.
Nine individual Muse albums are represented on our seven-CD set. The collection includes many rare photographs from the time. The set was co-produced by Woody Shaw III, who has devoted his life to preserving the legacy of his father and that of his stepfather, Dexter Gordon. He also contributed the essay and track-by-track notes. As with all the Mosaic collections whose masters we license, it will be available only for a short time and then never again in this form.
We urge you to re-examine the importance of this gentle giant by claiming a copy of a set we expect to disappear quickly.
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #162: Neuentdeckungen aus dem Katalog von CTI Records, 8.4., 22:00; # 163: 13.5., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba