Woody Shaw
Legends Series Trumpet Mouthpiece
The Woody Shaw Legends Series mouthpiece is an exact reproduction of Woody Shaw’s silver plated mouthpiece from the 1970s. Expert brass mouthpiece maker, Greg Black, has created an authentic mold that pays tribute to one of the most forward-thinking and innovative trumpet players of all time.
The Woody Shaw mouthpiece features a silver plating throughout, 15.75MM, .620″ inner rim, semi flat rim contour, medium wide rim thickness, medium deep bowl cup depth and a bore – #26, (.147″, 3.73MM).
Woody Shaw (1944-1989) is considered to be one of the last major innovators in the lineage of modern jazz trumpet that began with Buddy Bolden, Joe “King” Oliver, Jabbo Smith, and Louis Armstrong, extending through Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, and Freddie Hubbard.
Inspired by saxophonists John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy, as well as 20th-century classical and world music, Woody Shaw vastly expanded the harmonic, melodic, and technical vocabulary of modern trumpet playing.
Woody Shaw (1944 – 1989)
“Now there’s a great trumpet player. He can play different from all of them.” -Miles Davis
Woody Shaw, Jr. was born in Laurinburg, NC on Christmas Eve in 1944. His parents, Rosalie Pegues and Woody Shaw, Sr., attended the historic Laurinburg Institute, which was also the alma mater of trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie.
At the age of one year old, Woody’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, and later Clifford Brown. Mr. Ziering wanted Woody to attend Juilliard 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, bassist Scott Lafarro, 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. 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 Verdian 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, Bobby Hutcherson, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and many others.
In the 1970s, 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, Woody signed with Muse Records (now High Note) and recorded several albums such as The Moontrane, Love Dance, Live at the Berliner Jazzstage, and Iron Men. In 1976, Woody recorded several albums with Dexter Gordon for Columbia Records, including Homecoming, Sophisticated Giant, and Gotham City. And, in 1977, Woody Shaw was signed to Columbia Records and recorded five historic albums of his own: Rosewood, Stepping Stones, Woody III, For Sure and United. The recent Complete Columbia Albums Collection showcases all of Woody Shaw’s works from this period.
During the 1980s, Woody led several bands with the likes of Steve Turre, Terri Lyne Carrington, Larry Willis, Kenny Garrett, and recorded a series of albums for Blue Note with his close friend and fellow trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard. Woody Shaw passed away on May 10th, 1989 but his legacy lives on. He is survived by his son and namesake Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III.
For more info on Woody Shaw, visit www.WoodyShaw.com or www.Facebook.com/