# It was to these strong roots that trumpeter-composer Woody Shaw attributed his deep sense of pride, cultural awareness … Videos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/12/23/it-was-to-these-strong-roots-that-trumpeter-composer-woody-shaw-attributed-his-deep-sense-of-pride-cultural-awareness-videos/
- Published: 2018-12-23T21:12:45+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**24.12. – Happy Birthday !!! Woody Shaw, Jr. was born in Laurinburg, NC on Christmas
Eve on 1944. His father, Woody Shaw Sr., was a lead singer in the legendary gospel
group known as the Diamond Jubilee Singers. **

Woody’s father also attended Laurinburg Institute, which was the_alma mater_ of 
trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie. It was to these strong roots that trumpeter-composer
Woody Shaw attributed his deep sense of pride, cultural awareness and spiritual 
devotion to music.

At the age of six months old, Woody Jr.’s parents moved to Newark, NJ where he spent
most of his childhood. Woody attended Cleveland Junior High School and joined the
Junior Elks, Junior Mason, and George Washington Carver Drum and Bugle Corps where
he picked up the bugle at an early age. At Cleveland Junior High School, he met 
an accomplished trumpet teacher, Mr. Jerome Ziering, and during this time, at age
11, he began studying classical trumpet while listening to Dizzy Gillespie, Louis
Armstrong, Harry James, and later Clifford Brown. Mr. Ziering wanted Woody to attend
The Juilliard School of Music to become a classical trumpeter so he trained young
Shaw to become a virtuoso on his instrument. Although he never reached Juilliard,
Woody attended the famed Arts High in Newark, which was attended by many legendary
jazz artists, such as Wayne Shorter, Sarah Vaughan, organist Larry Young, and many
others. Woody began working professionally at age 14.

Woody sat in with countless musicians as a teenager, including Kenny Dorham, Hank
Mobley, Lou Donaldson and others in Newark. Along with playing in the local youth
bands, this gave him a solid basis in the jazz and African American musical tradition.

**1960S – **After playing with famed Latin percussionist Willie Bobo in a band with
Chick Corea and saxophonist Joe Farrell, Woody joined the band of legendary saxophonist
Eric Dolphy in 1963. It was under the tutelage of Dolphy that Woody would be encouraged
to pursue his own musical voice. Dolphy’s complex compositions provided Shaw with
a new harmonic concept and different way of looking at music which would shape his
approach to the trumpet for years to come. In May of 1963, Woody made his first 
recorded debut on Eric Dolphy’s_ Iron Man. _

In 1964, at age 19, Woody moved to Paris to work with Dolphy’s band, but Dolphy 
had passed away, so he wound up living there for a year and half while working with
people like Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Johnny Griffin, Dexter Gordon, Nathan Davis,
Donald Byrd, and other expatriates in Europe. While in Paris, Woody received an 
invitation to return to the U.S. to join the Horace Silver Quintet, and, in 1965,
Woody made his first album for Blue Note Records on Horace Silver’s classic – _Cape
Verdean Blues_.

Later that year Woody made what would be his first major recording as a composer
and trumpeter on organist Larry Young’s cult classic, _Unity_, which featured Joe
Henderson on tenor sax and Elvin Jones on drums. Woody wrote three of the six tunes
on _Unity_, entitled “Zoltan,” “Beyond All Limits,” and “The Moontrane,” all of 
which have become standards. The years following would see Woody working as a sideman
for Blue Note and touring with such legends as Jackie McLean, Booker Ervin, Hank
Mobley, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Andrew Hill, Joe Henderson, Joe Zawinul, Bobby Hutcherson,
Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner.

**1970S – **In 1970, Woody made his first album as a leader entitled _Blackstone
Legacy_ (Contemporary), which featured Gary Bartz, Bennie Maupin, Ron Carter, and
Lenny White. Shortly thereafter, he recorded a second album entitled _Song of Songs
_and around this time moved to San Francisco where he worked closely with Bobby 
Hutcherson and others, frequenting the famed Keystone Korner club.

In 1974, Woody returned to the East Coast and signed with Muse Records (now High
Note) and recorded several albums such as _The Moontrane _ (1974), _Love Dance _(
1975), _Little Red’s Fantasy_ (1976) _Live at the Berliner Jazztage _ (1976), and
_Iron Men _(1977, a tribute to Eric Dolphy and Andrew Hill featuring Arther Blythe,
Muhal Richard Abrams and Anthony Braxton). All of Woody Shaw’s Muse recordings were
reissued in [_The Complete Muse Sessions of Woody Shaw_](http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=255-MD-CD)
in 2013.

In 1976, Woody also made his first major commercial debut for Columbia Records with
Dexter Gordon appearing on Dexter’s resurgent album _Homecoming _ (1976), followed
by _Sophisticated Giant _ (1977), and _Gotham City _ (1981). In 1977, by way of 
an endorsement from Miles Davis, and through his association with Dexter Gordon –
who Woody had helped reintroduce to the American jazz scene – Woody received his
first major record contract and was signed with Columbia Records.

He then went on to record five historic albums of his own: _Rosewood _(1977), _Stepping
Stones _ (1978), _Woody III _ (1979), _For Sure _ (1980) and _United _ (1981). The
recent _[Complete Columbia Albums Collection of Woody Shaw](http://www.popmarket.com/woody-shaw-the-complete-columbia-albums-collection/details/25962925)_(
co-produced and project-directed by his son, Woody Shaw III) showcases all of Woody’s
work from this period including additional unissued material. Musicians included
on Woody’s Columbia recordings include Victor Lewis, Carter Jefferson, Onaje Allan
Gumbs, Clint Houston, Stafford James, Joe Henderson, Rene McLean, Mulgrew Miller,
Larry Willis, Steve Turre and others.

**1980S – **Throughout the 1980s, Woody toured with various ensembles which included
musicians such as Kenny Garrett (Woody appears as a guest on Kenny Garrett’s debut
album _Introducing Kenny Garrett)_, Terri Lyne Carrington, David Williams, Ronnie
Burrage, Kirk Lightsey, Ray Drummond, and Cedar Walton. He also recorded a series
of albums for Blue Note with his close friend and fellow trumpet legend Freddie 
Hubbard.

During this period, Woody conducted numerous workshops and clinics around the world.
Between the years of 1984 and 1986, Woody traveled all over Europe and to the Middle
East and South Asia on the United States Information Service tour where he visited
such countries as India, Egypt, the Sudan, and Russia.

After several years of mounting health complications, Woody Shaw suffered fatally
from kidney failure and passed away on May 10th, 1989 at the young age of 44. Yet
despite a fairly short and challenging life fraught with various health problems,
the brilliance of his legacy and the beauty of his music continues to inspire people
all over the world. Woody Shaw lives on through his many close friends, students,
and thousands of musicians and music lovers who discover, listen to, and explore
his life’s work everyday. His legacy is preserved and maintained by his son and 
namesake, Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III, who controls all creative, legal, archival
and administrative aspects of the Shaw Legacy.

Woody Shaw, Jr. is today considered to be the last major innovator in the lineage
of 20th-century trumpet that began with Joe “King” Oliver, Jabbo Smith, Louis Armstrong,
and which extended on through the likes of Harry James, Bunny Berigan, Cootie Williams,
Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Clifford
Brown, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, Donald Byrd, and Freddie Hubbard. Inspired heavily
by saxophonists John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy and pianist McCoy Tyner, as well as
by various world musics and European classical composers, Woody Shaw sought to extend
the legacy of jazz by systematically advancing the tonal, harmonic, melodic, rhythmic
and improvisational language of modern trumpet playing. Rooted deeply within the
spiritual and intellectual dimensions of both African American and European classical
forms (what he termed “Afro-European” musics), and invested in exploring an array
of world cultures and systems of thought, Woody Shaw pioneered a new approach to
structured improvisational composition in which the totality of his influences would
gradually find uncompromising expression.

Musicians whose lives and careers have been directly impacted by Woody Shaw’s work(
through interaction, exposure, or direct instruction) include such notables as Wallace
Roney, Randy Brecker, Tom Harrell, Dave Douglas, and Terence Blanchard, as well 
as Wynton Marsalis, Chris Botti, and  Ingrid Monson, and countless others, the latter
three of whom received grants from the National Endowment of the Arts to study with
Woody Shaw during the 1980s.

![Картинки по запросу Woody Shaw](https://i0.wp.com/media.newyorker.
com/photos/59a493293f57ac674e2a3e71/master/w_727%2Cc_limit/Brody-Woody-Shaw.jpg?
w=640&ssl=1)

### _Related_