Gene Shaw - Break Through + Debut in Blues

EU import

First time on CD in STEREO

Hailing from Detroit, trumpeter Clarence Gene Shaw (1926-1973) is yet another jazzman who deserves much more recognition than he has received so far. He first arrived in the jazz world as Clarence Shaw, one of the members in the Charlie Mingus Jazz Workshop from 1955 to 1957. Mingus, in his liner notes for “Tijuana Moods” commented on the excellent work of his trumpeter. He wasn’t one to give praise easily, so when he singled out Shaw thus, people started paying close attention. The gist of the notes was that if the record had been issued in 1957 —when it was recorded— instead of in 1962, the trumpeter would have been by then as famous as “any of our current so-called jazz players.” Despite this, and after several vicissitudes, personal or otherwise, Shaw stopped playing and quit the scene for five years.

He showed up again with the belated 1962 release of “Tijuana Moods”, this time in Chicago as Gene Shaw, leading a hard-bop quintet. About his decision he simply said: “Mingus ended it; Mingus began it again”. His lyrical and relaxed style was almost a final refinement of the hard-bop trumpet idiom, and the unique qualities Mingus saw in this free spirit were given an intriguing showcase in these two albums, “Break Through” and “Debut in Blues”.