WOODY SHAW — Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard (review)

WOODY SHAW — Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard album cover Live album · 1978 · Post Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Mssr_Renard
Woody Shaw is one of my favorite seventies and eighties post-bop trumpeteers. A great composer and bandleader aswell.

Almost all of his seventies albums are worth listening, but this live-album is where the magic really happens.

The lp- and cd-version of this album are almost completely different. My review is about the lp.

This livealbum (recorded on two nights: august 5th and 6th, 1978 at the Village Vanguard, New York) features five originals (three from Shaw, one from drummer Lewis and one from pianist Gumbs). The final song is only a theme so it doesn't really count.

The quintet featured, is a very steady one and the interplay is magnificent. Sometimes it reminds me a bit of Jazz Messengers during the Shorter/Hubbard/Walton/Fuller-days.

Shaw plays no trumpet, but only cornet and flugelhorn, wich he does mostly during these days.

The album kicks off in a nice uptempo fashion with the Shaw-original Stepping Stone

On the song In a Capricornian Way (a 3/4 waltz) Jefferson (saxophone) and Gumbs (piano) really show their worth. During the pianosolo, you can also hear how tight Lewis and Houston (bass) sound. A great rhythm trio. The basssolo is very nice aswell. Perhaps I A Capricornian Way is one of the most beautiful songs I know. I like jazz-waltzes very much, I guess.

Side two opens with the Gumbs-penned It All Comes Back to You with some tasty flugelhorn and soprano saxophone interplay. Jefferson and Shaw are a match made in heaven. Here you can also hear the splendid rhythmsection.

Seventh Avenue is an uptempo hardbopper, written by drummer Lewis. The theme of the song is unisono cornet and saxophone mimicking policesirens or something similar and the whole song is crazy and tries to capture the craziness ofcthe city. A wonderful composition.

The last song (improvisation) is dedicated to executive producer and manager Maxine Gregg and has a nice theme to end a perfect live-album, wich you keep turning over and over to play it again and again.

The line-up on this album is also featured on Rosewood and Woody Three.

The song Escape Velocity from these concerts is featured on Woody Three. Theme for Maxine is turned into a seven minute song with Joe Henderson on the album Rosewood (wich in fact came out a year earlier).
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