This LP would be recommended if only for trumpeter Woody Shaw’s autobiographical liner notes which definitively sum up both this recording and his career up to 1972. Four of Shaw’s originals are interpreted by a sextet also including Emanuel Boyd on flute and tenor, keyboardist George Cables, bassist Henry Franklin, drummer Woodrow Theus II, tenorman Ramon Morris (on two songs) and Bennie Maupin on tenor for “The Goat And The Archer.” The music falls between hard bop, modal musings and the avant-garde. Although possessing a tone similar to Freddie Hubbard’s, Woody Shaw was a more advanced player and his solos throughout the date are both original and consistently exciting. – Scott Yanow
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