RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) — A forgotten studio recording of the late jazz trumpeter Woody Shaw has been released as part of an effort to preserve jazz history.
“49th Parallel,” a 1987 recording led by Canadian bassist Neil Swainson that features Shaw and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, was made available this month by Vancouver, Canada-based Cellar Music Group’s imprint Reel to Real and New York distributor la reserve records.
The album has been out-of-print for 25 years and is now available on digital platforms.
Swainson said it was an honor to see his project recorded in Toronto make it into the hands of jazz fans after the recordings languished for years. He said his friend Shaw, who had a public struggle with heroin addiction, had left a rehab center in California and came to Toronto for the recording.
“He looked healthy. He looked great and he was ready to play,” Swainson said.
Shaw was nearly blind from retinitis pigmentosa during the recording and played by ear and memory. “He couldn’t read nor write at the time,” Swainson, 64, said. “He has a great recall, though.”
The seven-song album took only two days to record, Swainson said.
After the recording, Henderson saw a big career resurgence stemming from a series of Grammy-winning albums for the Verve label in the early 1990s. He died in 2001.
Shaw died two years after “49th Parallel” was recorded. He was 44.
Born in Laurinburg, North Carolina, in 1944, and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Shaw was one of jazz music’s most influential trumpeters thanks to his technical and harmonic conventions. He played with the Horace Silver Quintet and worked frequently with drummer Art Blakey before launching into his own solo career.
Shaw joined the “49th Parallel” project late in his career but Swainson said he was still at the height of his game. “It was a pretty exciting session,” Swainson said. “I’m glad people get to hear it again.”
Russell Contreras is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity Team. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.