Woody Shaw - Song Of Songs [Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf Series]

Miles Davis once singled out Woody Shaw as a trumpet player who could play differently from everyone else, and Song Of Songs is where you can hear exactly what he meant. Recorded over two days in September 1972 for Contemporary Records, it was Shaw's second album for the label and a statement of an approach that sat somewhere between hard bop, modal jazz and the spiritual avant-garde.

All four compositions are Shaw's own. The title track runs nearly twelve minutes and draws on Indonesian scales, a meditation on Southeast Asia written during the Vietnam War. "The Goat And The Archer" features Bennie Maupin on tenor, while "Love: For The One You Can't Have" and "The Awakening" find Shaw soloing with a harmonic daring that set him apart from his peers. George Cables on piano and electric piano, Henry Franklin on bass and Woody Theus on drums keep the rhythm section churning, with Ramon Morris and Emanuel Boyd rounding out the reeds.

Shaw went on to lead more than two dozen albums and influence a generation of trumpeters, yet this record spent five decades out of print on vinyl.

This Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf edition was cut from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a tip-on jacket reproducing the original Contemporary artwork.