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by Thomas Conrad :: JazzTimes
Rosewood had ambitious, fresh writing, a wealth of elegant detail (harp, flute, piccolo, percussion) and surging, irrepressible joie de vivre. Most of all, it had brilliant, crackling proof of Woody Shaw's place in history as a major trumpet stylist and innnovator.

Now, that night in a long-defunct jazz club seems very far away. What is most poignant about Rosewood is that it was not a new beginning, but the beginning of the end. Columbia and Bruce Lundvall, to their everlasting credit, had signed Shaw to a contract in 1977, a time when major labels were not recording pure jazz. Shaw recorded five strong albums for Columbia. But when his contract was not renewed in 1981, his career and his personal life entered a downward spiral. He disbanded his quintet in 1983, and spent his last years as a freelancer. He died at 44.

What is most important about Rosewood, Woody Shaw 's finest hour, is that it keeps a great American artist from being forgotten. (by Thomas Conrad. JazzTimes 35th Anniversary-TOP 50 Issue. Sept '05.)