United cover

United

Released

Virtuoso trumpeter Woody Shaw made five albums for Columbia Records, each one a statement. On this farewell to the label, that statement is, “Roll the tapes and let’s go.” The band — a quintet with Steve Turre’s trombone joining the leader on the front line, and Gary Bartz guesting on alto sax on two tracks — recorded at three separate sessions in March 1981, but the music has the feel of a single day spent in the studio, in the old-school Blue Note manner. They rip through a couple of Shaw originals, a piece by Wayne Shorter, one by pianist Mulgrew Miller, a standard and a blues. Their version of “What Is This Thing Called Love” is basically a tribute to the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet’s version from 1956, with all the trumpet pyrotechnics that implies.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Heavy Metal Be-Bop cover

Heavy Metal Be-Bop

The Brecker Brothers
Dune cover

Dune

Klaus Schulze
Live at the Union 1966 cover

Live at the Union 1966

Ian Carr, Don Rendell
Audentity cover

Audentity

Klaus Schulze
Artifacts cover

Artifacts

Mike Reed, Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid
Lookout for Hope cover

Lookout for Hope

The Bill Frisell Band