Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Gene Shaw was born Clarence Eugene Shaw in Detroit, Michigan on June 16, 1926. He played the piano and trombone as a child and didn’t begin playing the trumpet sometime around 1946 after hearing Dizzy Gillespie’s Hot House while recovering from injuries sustained in the army.

He attended the Detroit Institute of Music, and studied with pianist Barry Harris. In his hometown he played with Lester Young, Wardell Gray, and Lucky Thompson. His move to New York City in 1956 had him playing with Charles Mingus’s Jazz Workshop a year later and among his credits with the bassist are Tijuana Moods, East Coasting, where he used a Harmon mute, although he was initially wary of using it, given its association with the sound of Miles Davis.

Later that same year over a fight with Mingus, he destroyed his instrument and quit music. Not returning to playing until 1962, Gene formed his own ensemble. He retired again two years later, then returned to music once more in 1968.

As a leader he recorded three albums between 1962 and 1964 on the Argo label titled Breakthrough, Debut in Blues and Carnival Sketches. As a sideman with Mingus he also recorded three albums, East Coasting and A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry on the Bethlehem label in 1957, and Tijuana Moods in 1962 on RCA.

Trumpeter Gene Shaw, who was an active member of the Chicago Gurdjieff society and a student of Fourth Way psychology, including its music,  died in Los Angeles on August 17, 1973.

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