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by Thomas Conrad :: JazzTimes
The only time I saw Woody Shaw live was in 1979, in a very cool club in the Pioneer Square district of Seattle called Parnell's. It had little couches instead of chairs. You could really settle into the music in Parnell's. It was an unforgettable night.

The band had Carter Jefferson on reeds and Victor Lewis on drums. Pianist Larry Willis and Bassist Stafford James had recently replaced Onaje Allan Gumbs and Clint Houston.
-- (From a historical standpoint, the previous statement is slightly inaccurate.) Individually and collectively, the group was on fire, nailing the complex material from Shaw's latest album, Rosewood. Shaw's trumpet flew over his maniacal, musical arpeggios. I can still see Shaw, swaying slightly to the music when he was not playing, staring freely into space.

I distinctly remember that Shaw made an announcemnt that night. He must have received a phone call between sets. He had just learned that Rosewood had been voted "Record of the Year" in the Down Beat Readers' Poll, and that he had taken first place in the trumpet category (Later, Rosewood received two Grammy nominations.) Woody Shaw was on a roll.

Rosewood was the reason I was in Parnell's that night. I owned Shaw's earlier albums on Muse, but Rosewood was a breakthrough. I had been wearing out my copy. It was his major-label debut on Columbia. It's core was Shaw's working quintet of 1977, with Jefferson, Gumbs, Houston, and Lewis. But Columbia had financed additional personnel to make a 13 or 15-piece concert ensemble on four of the six pieces. One of the extra horns was the tenor saxophone of Joe Henderson, and he took two of the solos of his life on the title track and "Theme For Maxine."