Shaw's Finest Group in 1982
One of trumpeter Woody Shaw's finest groups, captured on tape in 1982 and worth acquiring.
In 1982, Woody Shaw assembled musicians for the Lotus Flower session, a recording that would land on the Enja label and rank among the strongest work of his career. The session brought together players who understood Shaw's language — his sharp attack, his harmonic sophistication, his refusal to play it safe even as he entered his fifties. What went down in that studio was the sound of a bandleader still pushing, still curious, still able to draw first-rate playing from the people around him.
Shaw had been recording for decades by this point, and you can hear it in how the band moves together. There's no wasted motion, no grandstanding. The arrangements breathe. The soloists know when to step forward and when to listen. This isn't a jam session pretending to be an album, and it isn't a carefully controlled studio project either — it sits in the middle, which is exactly where Shaw's best work tends to live.
AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow heard what mattered here: "This CD features one of trumpeter Woody Shaw's finest groups... Virtually every Woody Shaw recording is well worth acquiring, including this one." That's the kind of write-up that sticks because it's honest without being precious. Shaw had made plenty of records by 1982. This one belonged on the shelf with the best of them.
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