Woody Shaw died 22 years ago this month. A trumpeter of power, taste, a subtle harmonic sense and admirable originality, Shaw was long burdened with critiques 
that described him as a disciple, if not a copy, of Freddie Hubbard, who was six years his senior. This recording they made together—out of print, expensive and worth finding—says otherwise. Before becoming a leader in the late 1970s, Shaw worked with Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Max Roach, Dexter Gordon and Gil Evans, among others.
Here he is with his quartet at a concert at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1985, when he was 40. His rhythm section was Stanley Cowell, piano; David Williams, bass; and the 19-year-old Terri Lynn Carrington, drums. This is Shaw’s “Ginseng People.â€
The Shaw video came from Steve Provizer, the Boston trumpeter, writer, broadcaster and proprietor of the interesting weblog Brilliant Corners, which has long had a link in the Rifftides blogroll. In his current posting, Provizer ponders what he sees as a general decline in the number of comments by readers of jazz blogs.