Woody Shaw

Trumpet | 1944-1989

Woody Shaw’s trumpet runs in wide, angular leaps and fast fourths, a sound that pushed hard bop into the modal language of John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner. Born in North Carolina and raised in Newark, he joined Eric Dolphy’s band in 1963 and made his Blue Note debut with Horace Silver on The Cape Verdean Blues, then co-wrote three tracks on Larry Young’s Unity, including “The Moontrane”. As a leader he recorded Song of Songs (Contemporary, 1973), The Moontrane (Muse, 1975) and Rosewood (Columbia, 1978), which won Down Beat’s readers poll as Jazz Album of the Year. He appeared on Dexter Gordon’s Homecoming (1976). He died in 1989 at 44.