One of the great jazz trumpeters, Woody Shaw (1944-1989) transferred the innovations of John Coltrane to his horn. He had a similar sound to Freddie Hubbard but a more harmonically advanced style, falling between hard bop and the avant-garde.

Shaw, who grew up in Newark, New Jersey, started on bugle before making the logical switch to trumpet when he was 11. His first major job was when he went on a tour with drummer Rufus Jones at the age of 18. He worked with Willie Bobo alongside Chick Corea and became friends with Eric Dolphy, with whom he recorded in 1963.

The trumpeter went to Paris in 1964 when Dolphy asked him to join his group, but the saxophonist died suddenly right before Shaw arrived. Staying on the continent for a period, Shaw played with Bud Powell, Johnny Griffin, and various European jazz musicians before returning home.

After stints with Horace Silver and Max Roach, Shaw led two albums for Contemporary during 1970-1972. Blackstone Legacy, originally a double LP but now available as a single CD, has Shaw performing adventurous originals with some of his best contemporaries: altoist Gary Bartz, Bennie Maupin (on tenor, bass clarinet, and flute), keyboardist George Cables, both Ron Carter and Clinton Houston on basses, and drummer Lenny White. Song of Songs is a set with Cables, bassist Henry Franklin, drummer Woodrow Theus II, flutist Emanuel Boyd, and guests Maupin and tenor saxophonist Ramon Morris that is full of fire and adventure in addition to lyricism.

Shaw, who played with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1973 and Dexter Gordon in 1976, mostly worked as a leader throughout his career and, although overshadowed by Hubbard, Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis, he was one of the most stimulating trumpeters of the 1970s and ’80s before his premature death.