Woody Herman Shaw Jr. was born on December 24, 1944, and passed away on May 10, 1989. He was an American musician who played the trumpet, flugelhorn, and cornet. He also composed music, arranged musical pieces, led bands, and taught others. Shaw is known as one of the most important and influential jazz trumpeters and composers of the 20th century. He helped change the way modern jazz trumpet players use technique and harmony. Many people consider him a major innovator of the trumpet. He was a skilled musician, a teacher, and a representative of jazz. He worked and recorded music with many famous musicians of his time.

Early life and background

Woody Shaw was born in Laurinburg, North Carolina. When Shaw was one year old, his parents, Rosalie Pegues and Woody Shaw Sr., moved to Newark, New Jersey, with their son. Shaw's father was part of an African American gospel group called The Diamond Jubilee Singers. Both of Shaw's parents attended Laurinburg Institute, a private secondary school that Dizzy Gillespie also attended. Shaw's mother and Gillespie were from the same town, Cheraw, South Carolina.

Shaw began playing the bugle when he was nine years old. He performed with the Newark Junior Elks, Junior Mason, and Washington Carver Drum and Bugle Corps. Even though it was not his first choice, he started studying classical trumpet with Jerome Ziering at Cleveland Junior High School when he was 11 years old.

In a 1978 interview, Shaw explained:

Ziering encouraged him to keep studying classical trumpet and attend the Juilliard School of Music with trumpet instructor William Vacchiano. However, Shaw was deeply interested in jazz. His early influences were Louis Armstrong and Harry James. After skipping two grades, he began attending Newark Arts High School, where Wayne Shorter, Sarah Vaughan, Melba Moore, Savion Glover, Larry Young, and others also studied. He graduated from the school.

As a teenager, Shaw worked professionally at weddings, dances, and night clubs. He eventually left school but continued studying the trumpet, influenced by Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Booker Little, Lee Morgan, and Freddie Hubbard. He later found out that he started playing the trumpet in the same month and year that Brown died: June 1956.

Career

In 1963, after working in many local professional jobs, Shaw began working with Willie Bobo (alongside Chick Corea and Joe Farrell) and performed and recorded as a supporting musician with Eric Dolphy. He made his first recorded appearance with Dolphy on the album Iron Man. Dolphy, who was living in Paris, passed away unexpectedly in June 1964. Despite this, Shaw was invited to Paris to join Dolphy’s colleague, Nathan Davis. Together, they found steady work across Europe. While in Paris, they often visited the club Le Chat Qui Peche, where Shaw met musicians such as Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Johnny Griffin, Dexter Gordon, Art Taylor, and others like John Bodwin, as well as French musicians including Jean-Louis Chautemps, Rene Urtreger, Jacques Thollot, and Jef Gilson. Later, Shaw asked two of his peers, organist Larry Young and drummer Billy Brooks, to move to Paris. The four musicians—Davis, Shaw, Young, and Brooks—continued living and performing in France, occasionally touring cities in Europe, including Berlin, Germany.

By the mid-1960s, Shaw had learned and incorporated the musical ideas and influence of his mentor and friend, saxophonist Dolphy. At the same time, he explored the harmonic innovations of saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist McCoy Tyner. Both musicians greatly influenced Shaw’s development as a trumpeter and composer.

In 1965, Shaw returned to the United States from Paris and began working as a regular trumpet player for the Blue Note label, performing with many of their artists. He replaced Carmell Jones in the Horace Silver quintet (1965–1966) and made his Blue Note debut on Silver’s album The Cape Verdean Blues. He later recorded on Larry Young’s album Unity (1965), which included three of Shaw’s compositions: “Zoltan,” “Moontrane,” and “Beyond All Limits.” “Moontrane,” dedicated to Coltrane, was written when Shaw was 18 years old and was his earliest composition.

Shaw frequently collaborated and recorded with Chick Corea (1966–67, 1969), Jackie McLean (1967), Booker Ervin (1968), McCoy Tyner (1968), Andrew Hill (1969), Herbie Hancock, and Bobby Hutcherson. Between 1968 and 1969, he worked intermittently with Max Roach, touring with him in Iran. He also worked as a studio musician, in pit orchestras, and on Broadway musicals.

In 1970, Shaw recorded his first album as a leader, Blackstone Legacy, for Contemporary Records. The album featured musicians such as Bennie Maupin, Ron Carter, George Cables, Gary Bartz, Clint Houston, and Lenny White. This was followed by a second release under Shaw’s name, Song of Songs. During this time, Shaw moved to San Francisco to explore new opportunities and became closely associated with musicians on the West Coast, including Bobby Hutcherson, Eddie Moore, Eddie Marshall, and Henry Franklin.

In 1974, Shaw returned from California to New York, beginning an association with Muse Records. He recorded albums such as The Moontrane, Love Dance, Little Red’s Fantasy, and Iron Men, featuring musicians from the midwestern creative Black arts scene, including Anthony Braxton, Arthur Blythe, and Muhal Richard Abrams.

After working with Hutcherson, Art Blakey, Tyner, and others, Shaw became a band leader during the early 1970s, a time when many jazz artists explored jazz-rock. Shaw saw himself as an heir to the musical legacy of trumpeters such as Gillespie, Navarro, and Brown and, as an alumnus of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, felt responsible for preserving the tradition.

In 1977, Shaw signed with Columbia Records after receiving an endorsement from Miles Davis. He recorded albums such as Rosewood, Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard, Woody III, For Sure!, and United. Rosewood was nominated for two Grammys and won the DownBeat Readers’ Poll for Best Jazz Album of 1978. Shaw was also named Best Jazz Trumpeter of the Year and No. 4 Jazz Musician of the Year.

Throughout the 1980s, Shaw continued performing and recording as a leader with musicians such as pianists Onaje Allan Gumbs, Mulgrew Miller, and Larry Willis; bassist David Williams; drummer Terri Lyne Carrington; and trombonist Steve Turre. He recorded albums such as Solid, Setting Standards, and In My Own Sweet Way, which focused on standards and hard bop repertoire. During this time, he also worked with saxophonists Benny Golson, Kenny Garrett, and Dexter Gordon, as well as trumpeter Freddie Hubbard on albums such as Double Take and The Eternal Triangle.

In the 1980s, Shaw toured for the United States Information Service, visiting countries such as Egypt, Sudan

Educational work

Throughout his career, Shaw taught students worldwide through clinics, master classes, and private lessons. In the 1970s, he and Joe Henderson were teachers at Jamey Aebersold's jazz camp. Students who received NEA Grants and studied with Shaw include Wynton Marsalis, the musical director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Ingrid Monson, the Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music at Harvard University. Other students and apprentices are Chris Botti, Wallace Roney, and Terence Blanchard.

Awards

• Recognized for Talent, Downbeat International Jazz Critics' Poll (1977)
• Jazz Album of the Year, Downbeat Readers Poll: Rosewood (Columbia 1978)
• Best Trumpeter, Downbeat Readers Poll (1978)
• Grammy Nomination – Best Jazz Instrumental Performance (Soloist): Rosewood (1979)
• Grammy Nomination – Best Jazz Instrumental Performance (Group): Woody Shaw Concert Ensemble, Rosewood (1979)
• Best Trumpeter, Downbeat Readers Poll (1980)
• Inducted into the Downbeat Hall of Fame (1989)

Image and legacy

Between 2003 and 2013, more people began to notice and appreciate the music of Woody Shaw. In 2003, Shaw’s son, Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III, created The Official Woody Shaw Website. After this, many of Shaw’s old recordings, which had been hard to find, were released again, improved in quality, and repackaged. These efforts were managed by Shaw’s son, Michael Cuscuna, who had worked with Shaw for many years.

In 2012, PopMarket, a part of Sony Legacy, released a collection of all of Shaw’s albums made for Columbia Records. In 2013, Mosaic Records released a collection of Shaw’s recordings made for Muse Records. NPR called Shaw “the last great trumpet innovator.”

Shaw III, who inspired Shaw’s third Columbia album called Woody III (dedicated to Shaw’s father and his newborn son), is the only person who carries on his father’s legacy. Today, Shaw III keeps his father’s work alive by managing, organizing, and protecting it. He uses social media and the official website to share Shaw’s music and life.

As a musician and trumpet player, Shaw was respected by his peers and considered one of the most skilled trumpet players in jazz history. Miles Davis, who was known for being very critical of other musicians, once said, “Now there’s a great trumpet player. He can play different from all of them.” Trumpeter Dave Douglas said, “It’s not only the creative ideas that impress me about Woody Shaw – it’s how easy he makes very difficult music sound. Woody Shaw is now one of the most respected figures for trumpet players today.”

Shaw is known for expanding the ways trumpet players use music notes and techniques. When Shaw died in 1989, Wynton Marsalis said, “Woody added to the ways trumpet players use their instrument. His style had a big influence on me.” Madlib, a musician who works in many music styles, also said Shaw inspired him. In an interview, Madlib called Shaw his favorite trumpet player and said, “His music mixes electric and acoustic sounds, traditional and new styles – that’s what I’m all about.”

Style and influences

Shaw was known for his skill in using "wide" musical intervals, such as fourths and fifths, which are not commonly used on the trumpet. These intervals are challenging to play because (a) they require advanced technical skills, (b) the trumpet's design makes them harder to use, (c) the trumpet naturally produces sounds based on the overtone series, and (d) the instrument is traditionally linked to intervals like thirds and diatonic relationships.

In both his improvisations and compositions, Shaw often used polytonality, which means playing two or more different keys or tonalities at the same time. In his solos, he combined complex patterns from the pentatonic scale and sequences of intervals that changed keys unpredictably. He was highly skilled in using different musical modes and created a wide variety of harmonic sounds. His music included unusual contrasts, tension and resolution, dissonance, unusual rhythms, and phrases that stretched across the end of a musical measure. However, he always followed the structure and harmonic rules of a piece while staying true to jazz traditions and sometimes creating new ones.

Shaw’s playing had a very clear and precise attack, even when playing very fast. His tone was rich and dark, with a voice-like quality. His pitch accuracy and how he shaped notes were highly developed. He often used the lower part of the trumpet’s range, ending phrases with a deep, extended vibrato. Shaw also used the chromatic scale, which gave his melodies a smooth, flowing feel, allowing him to move easily between chords in many different ways.

Shaw had an amazing memory and perfect pitch. Max Roach once said, "He was truly one of the greatest. I first worked with Woody on a trip to Iran. One of the most amazing things was his memory. I was amazed. After just one look, he knew all the musical charts, no matter how complex they were."

Shaw’s improvisational and composing style was influenced by musicians like Dolphy, Coltrane, and Tyner, as well as European composers such as Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Erik Satie, Alexander Scriabin, Carlos Chavez, Ernest Bloch, Olivier Messiaen, Paul Hindemith, Charles Ives, Edgar Varese, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Colin McPhee. He also listened to traditional Japanese music, Indonesian Gamelan, Indian classical music, Brazilian music, and other global musical styles.

Discography

• 1965: In the Beginning (Muse, 1983)
• 1970: Jazz Patterns (Everest, 1982)
• 1970: Blackstone Legacy (Contemporary, 1971)
• 1972: Song of Songs (Contemporary, 1973)
• 1974: The Moontrane (Muse, 1975)
• 1975: San Francisco Express – Getting It Together (Reynolds, 1979)
• 1975: Love Dance (Muse, 1976)
• 1976: Little Red's Fantasy (Muse, 1978)
• 1976: The Woody Shaw Concert Ensemble at the Berliner Jazztage (Muse, 1977) – live
• 1977: Lausanne 1977 with Louis Hayes (TCB, 1977) – live
• 1977: The Iron Men with Anthony Braxton (Muse, 1980)
• 1977: Woody Shaw Live Volume One (HighNote, 2000) – live
• 1977: Woody Shaw Live Volume Two (HighNote, 2001) – live
• 1977: Woody Shaw Live Volume Three (HighNote, 2002) – live
• 1977: Rosewood (Columbia, 1978)
• 1978: Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard (Columbia, 1979) – live
• 1978–79: Woody III (Columbia, 1979)
• 1979: At Onkel Pö's Carnegie Hall Hamburg 1979 Vol.1 (Jazzline, 2019)
• 1979: For Sure! (Columbia, 1980)
• 1981: United (Columbia, 1981)
• 1981: Tokyo '81 (Elemental Music, 2018) – live
• 1981: Woody Shaw Live Volume Four (HighNote, 2005) – live
• 1982: Lotus Flower (Enja, 1982)
• 1982: Master of the Art (Elektra/Musician, 1982) – live
• 1982: Night Music (Elektra/Musician, 1983) – live
• 1983: The Time Is Right (Red, 1983) – live
• 1983: Setting Standards (Muse, 1984)
• 1983: Live in Bremen 1983 (Elemental Music, 2018) – live
• 1985: Woody Shaw with the Tone Jansa Quartet (Timeless, 1985)
• 1985: Double Take with Freddie Hubbard (Blue Note, 1985)
• 1986: Bemsha Swing (Blue Note, 1997)
• 1986: Solid (Muse, 1987)
• 1986: Dr. Chi with the Tone Jansa Quartet (Timeless, 1989)
• 1986: 2 MFs – Live at The Closet 1986 with Gary Bartz (bandcamp, 2020) [digital download] – live
• 1987: In My Own Sweet Way (In + Out, 1989) – live
• 1987: The Eternal Triangle with Freddie Hubbard (Blue Note, 1987)
• 1987: Imagination (Muse, 1988)

• Woody Plays Woody (HighNote, 2012) – compilation based on the HighNote live albums listed above
• Field Recordings of A Jazz Master (International Trumpet Guild, 2012)

• The Complete CBS Studio Recordings of Woody Shaw (Mosaic, 1992)
• Woody Shaw: The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (Columbia Legacy, 2011)
• Woody Shaw: The Complete Muse Sessions (Mosaic, 2013)

With Bobby Hutcherson