Lee Shaw

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Lee Shaw (born June 25, 1926 in Ada , Oklahoma , † October 25, 2015 ) was an American jazz pianist and composer .

Live and act

Lee Shaw self-taught began playing the piano at the age of eleven, playing the pieces from the Great American Songbook on the radio. She then studied classical piano at Oklahoma College for Women . She only came into contact with jazz when she moved to Chicago to do a Masters at the American Conservatory of Music . She had her first appearances in Chicago; she played popular songs in restaurants and clubs; eventually she made a brief appearance in the Count Basie Band. In Chicago she met her future husband, the drummer Stan Shaw.
Her professional career as a jazz pianist began at Mr. Kelly’s Club ; There she accompanied guest jazz vocalists such as Anita O'Day , Billie Holiday , Jackie Cain , Roy Kral , Sarah Vaughan and worked with jazz musicians such as Roy Haynes . In 1961 she formed a piano trio with her husband Stan; they moved to New York City, performed in clubs like Birdland and Village Vanguard, and gave a number of concerts in the United States. In 1971 the couple settled in Albany, New York ; During this time Lee Shaw devoted himself mainly to her family, but played in Albany with guest musicians such as Dexter Gordon , Thad Jones , Chico Hamilton , Pepper Adams , Zoot Sims , Al Cohn , Richard Davis , Slam Stewart and Major Holley .

Eventually she returned to the jazz scene in the early 1980s. In 1984 Lee Shaw and her trio recorded their first album live under their own name, Lee Shaw OK! , on the Cadence Jazz label , at the end of a month-long tour through their home state of Oklahoma . She then stepped u. a. in the radio broadcast of Marian McPartland on National Public Radio on. In 1996 the trio album Essence was created live with guitarist Mike DeMicco and bassist Rich Syracuse . From 1999 she worked in a trio with Rich Syracuse and the drummer Jeff Siegel , with whom she recorded the album A Place for Jazz on Cadence Jazz in 2001 . The album was made two weeks after the death of her husband Stan.

In 2007 she toured a. a. through Germany and Austria; in this context, the album Live in Graz was recorded in autumn , with original compositions by Shaw and standards by Billy Taylor (“Easy Walker”), Victor Young's “Street of Dreams” and Ahmad Jamal's “Night Mist”.

Shaw's playing was heavily influenced by Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson , as well as Billy Taylor and Ahmad Jamal. Lee Shaw was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993. She was last seen - together with Marian McPartland - as the Grand Old Dame of Jazz. John Medeski is one of her students .

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steve Barnes: 'First Lady of Jazz,' Lee Shaw, dies at 89 (obituary)
personal data
SURNAME Shaw, Lee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Ada
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 2015