GENE SHAW QUINTET & SEXTET - Break Through & Debut In Blue
Fresh Sound Records FSR CD 926
Gene Shaw (t), Herb Wise (tb), Sherman Morrison, Jay Peters (ts), James Taylor (p), Sidney Robinson (b), Bernard Martin, Gerald Donovan (d)
Hailed by his ex- employer Charles Mingus as one of the trumpet greats, Shaw disappeared from sight after a dispute with the bassist in 1957 and leaving his band. He re-surfaced again in 1962 and made the two excellent LPs for Argo Records, Breakthrough and Debut In Blues. The contents of both albums have been fitted onto this single CD and they prove that Mingus was right, Shaw was an exceptionally gifted jazz trumpeter. Blues drenched, always a good sign of a musician’s feeling for the music, Shaw’s solos here are exceptionally fresh and all his own. He had his own sound, a sort of soft focus but intense tone that identified him as soon as he was heard.
These two LPs were made with Shaw’s own group at the time and they play very well. None of the names will be over familiar to jazz buffs but they are all extremely competent. Born in 1926, Shaw died in 1973 having dropped out of music yet again in 1964 and made a final comeback in 1968 and received rave notices for his playing at the Hungry Eye night club in Chicago. Then he disappeared yet again and nobody seems to know where he ended up until he finally returned to California, retired from music and died on August 17th 1973.
A somewhat erratic, nomadic existence then, possibly triggered by Mingus’s mistaken ill treatment of him when he missed a record date through genuine illness. While briefly on this planet though, he played excellent modern jazz trumpet and the evidence is there to hear on this CD.
Reviewed by Derek Ansell
Fresh Sound Records FSR CD 926
Gene Shaw (t), Herb Wise (tb), Sherman Morrison, Jay Peters (ts), James Taylor (p), Sidney Robinson (b), Bernard Martin, Gerald Donovan (d)
Hailed by his ex- employer Charles Mingus as one of the trumpet greats, Shaw disappeared from sight after a dispute with the bassist in 1957 and leaving his band. He re-surfaced again in 1962 and made the two excellent LPs for Argo Records, Breakthrough and Debut In Blues. The contents of both albums have been fitted onto this single CD and they prove that Mingus was right, Shaw was an exceptionally gifted jazz trumpeter. Blues drenched, always a good sign of a musician’s feeling for the music, Shaw’s solos here are exceptionally fresh and all his own. He had his own sound, a sort of soft focus but intense tone that identified him as soon as he was heard.
These two LPs were made with Shaw’s own group at the time and they play very well. None of the names will be over familiar to jazz buffs but they are all extremely competent. Born in 1926, Shaw died in 1973 having dropped out of music yet again in 1964 and made a final comeback in 1968 and received rave notices for his playing at the Hungry Eye night club in Chicago. Then he disappeared yet again and nobody seems to know where he ended up until he finally returned to California, retired from music and died on August 17th 1973.
A somewhat erratic, nomadic existence then, possibly triggered by Mingus’s mistaken ill treatment of him when he missed a record date through genuine illness. While briefly on this planet though, he played excellent modern jazz trumpet and the evidence is there to hear on this CD.
Reviewed by Derek Ansell
