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Ian Shaw

“The best jazz vocalist we have” (Time Out), 2007 has been one of Ian Shaw’s most successful years. At the 2006 BBC Jazz Awards (where Shaw was nominated Best Vocalist), Shaw was invited to sing with the legendary Quincy Jones. His recent Linn album, “Drawn To All things, The Songs Of Joni Mitchell” has garnered worldwide praise and was the first successful solo artist tribute to this highly regarded songwriter. Shaw toured the album for a year, taking in the major festivals and making his debut at the prestigious Sunset Sunside Club in Paris. These shows were as a result of Shaw being nominated as Best Vocalist in the Academie du Jazz at the close of the year. In March of 2007 Shaw finally recorded the David/Bacharach Songbook with the HR Big Band following last year’s concerts in Germany with them. Shaw was also invited by labelmate, Claire Martin to compose a song remembering Shirley Horn for her new release, “He Never Mentioned Love”(Linn). The song is “Slow Time”.

After a sell-out six shows at the new Ronnie Scott’s before Christmas, Shaw and his band have been touring the spring and summer festivals. A new partnership with the Mercury nominated trumpeter, broadcaster and composer, Guy Barker, was formed. With just Shaw’s piano for accompaniment, “Barker And Shaw Go To The Movies”, a musical and highly entertaining romp through their favourite film music, has sold out all over the country. They will debut it in Toronto in January 2008, where Shaw has been invited to take part in the IAJE annual festival.

In June this year, Shaw won the coveted Best Vocalist category at the 2007 BBC Jazz Awards, having previously won in 2004. He performed a brand new arrangement by Guy Barker of Joni’s “A Case Of You”.

In September this year, he performed to a packed crowd with The Phil Ware Trio at The Dublin Festival. This was broadcast by RTE. The following week saw Shaw and his longtime musical partner, Claire Martin play six sell-out shows at New York’s Lincoln Center. WBGO called Shaw “a razor-sharp performer with faultless time and unrivalled passion”.

High Contrast, one of Europe’s most successful Drum and Bass projects invited Shaw to sing on “Everything Is Different”(Hospital Records), a new take on an old Donny Hathaway classic. The track has been a summer success and appears on “Tough Guys Don’t Dance”, the follow-up album following the single. The video can be seen on youtube.

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Album Review

Sarah L King: Fire Horse

Read "Fire Horse" reviewed by Neil Duggan


Starting her musical path with coaching from Mike King, one of the UK's leading contemporary vocal coaches, Sarah L King (no relation), surfaced as a solo jazz vocalist, releasing an EP of standards and several singles. Her passage was helped by a family heritage consisting of an accomplished jazz trumpeter father and an orchestral conductor grandmother. An early career as a writer and director of short films provided the right impetus to be a compelling musical narrator. King's ...

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Profile

The Jazz Education of Ian Shaw

Read "The Jazz Education of Ian Shaw" reviewed by Mathew Bahl


A few notable exceptions aside, great jazz musicians are not born; they are created. Most young musicians start by absorbing the work of important influences and then, through practice and live performance, decide what to keep, what to modify and what to discard. Ultimately, originality is less a byproduct of inspiration and more the end result of a process of self-editing. That has certainly been the case with the Welsh jazz vocalist Ian Shaw. Now in his late ...

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Album Review

Ian Shaw, Iain Ballamy, Jamie Safir: What's New

Read "What's New" reviewed by Chris May


What's new? Not the dozen songs on this enchanting trio album. Most of them have been around for well over fifty years and people will likely still be enjoying them in another fifty. The composers include Duke Ellington, Richard Rodgers, Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Van Heusen, Michel Legrand and Leonard Bernstein. Musically sophisticated and lyrically literate, the allure of their songs seems to grow, not fade, with age. What's New was recorded by vocalist Ian Shaw and tenor ...

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Album Review

The New York All-Stars: Live Encounter

Read "Live Encounter" reviewed by Chris May


Some things live forever and take-no-quarter hard bop is one of them... If you time travelled back to jny: New York City circa 1958 and wandered into the Half Note or Five Spot, Live Encounter contains the sort of music you might have heard. Tough, emotionally-rich jazz with no-fuss head arrangements, extrovert horn solos and a propulsive rhythm section. The album, recorded at jny:London's Pizza Express Jazz Club in 2018, will appeal to anyone who keeps their Hank Mobley and ...

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Live Review

Ian Shaw With The Phil Ware Trio at The Workmans Club

Read "Ian Shaw With The Phil Ware Trio at The Workmans Club" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Ian Shaw With The Phil Ware Trio The Workmans Club jny:Dublin, Ireland January 21, 2017 A full house at The Workmans Club for Ian Shaw with the Phil Ware Trio was a heartening sight. Anything less, however, would have been disappointing, for Shaw is rightly considered by many as one of the greatest male jazz vocalists of this or possibly any other era. If he couldn't draw a decent crowd then jazz would really ...

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Album Review

Georgia Mancio: Live At ReVoice!

Read "Live At ReVoice!" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


The name at the top of the cover of Live At ReVoice! is that of Georgia Mancio, the London-based vocalist who appears on every one of the 12 tracks. A quick glance lower down the cover adds a dozen more names--a list of Mancio's accompanists that reads like a veritable “Who's Who" of the UK jazz scene. A baker's dozen of talented performers, twelve beautifully performed songs, captured with exceptional sound quality. Mancio has organised the ReVoice! festival ...

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Album Review

Ian Shaw: A Ghost In Every Bar

Read "A Ghost In Every Bar" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


Ian Shaw's warm and evocative voice, Fran Landesman's superb lyrics and music from some of her best collaborators: A Ghost In Every Bar has them all. Put it another way: on A Ghost In Every Bar one of the finest singers in contemporary music interprets some of the greatest songs of the last 50 years. If either--or both--of those descriptions sound like hype, that's OK; sometimes the hype hits the nail on the head.Landesman was born in New ...

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Interview

British Vocalist Ian Shaw Interviewed at AAJ

British Vocalist Ian Shaw Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Ian Shaw is a jazz singer. This simple description is accurate--it's how Shaw refers to himself--but it falls well short of doing the man justice. Ian Shaw is one of the most distinctive, original and creative jazz singers on the scene: he is a talented pianist and songwriter with a knack for working with top-quality musicians, an ability to seek out and cover some of the finest songs in contemporary music, and a showmanship that ensures that his live performances ...

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Recording

Ian Shaw Releases Self-Penned Album "Lifejacket"

Ian Shaw Releases Self-Penned Album "Lifejacket"

Source: All About Jazz

Ian Shaw fulfils a life ambition to release an album of originals. “Lifejacket" includes a collection of highly personal stories and observations and is so-called because of all the pressures to stay afloat in life. On it Shaw questions the unsteady passage from young man to middle-aged child. Produced by Calum Malcolm and worked on together with co-writer David Preston, Shaw explores with humour the themes of drinking, growing older, love and, with poignancy, the heartache of war. Songs include ...

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Event

Clare Teal & Ian Shaw get it together....

Clare Teal & Ian Shaw get it together....

Source: All About Jazz

UK singer Clare Teal stunned a packed audience at Scarborough jazz festival by making a surprise appearance on stage during a concert by Ian Shaw. The singer, signed to Sony records, had headlined the festival the day before where she had played to a sold out auditorium and was presumed by all the festival goers to be on her way to Durham for a concert at The Gala Theatre, but Clare stayed behind specially to sing with her friend who ...

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Event

Clare Teal & Ian Shaw team up to raise money for M.E. Charities

Clare Teal & Ian Shaw team up to raise money for M.E. Charities

Source: All About Jazz

On Sunday 29th May 2005, Clare Teal, Ian Shaw, Tony Smith (Roy Ayers' guitarist)and other celebrities from the Jazz world will be performing a unique concert at the 606 club in London to raise money for charities that suport research into M.E. The event will be a truely exceptional experience and will sell out very quickly so please book early if you want to guarantee being there. We don't have the full details yet, but as it is a Sunday ...

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Award / Grant

441 Records' Ian Shaw Wins BBC Jazz Vocalist of the Year

441 Records' Ian Shaw Wins BBC Jazz Vocalist of the Year

Source: All About Jazz


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Award / Grant

441 Records' Ian Shaw Nominated for BBC Jazz Vocalist of the Year

441 Records' Ian Shaw Nominated for BBC Jazz Vocalist of the Year

Source: All About Jazz


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Performance / Tour

Ian Shaw Wows 'Em -- Coming Back to Joe's [Pub]

Ian Shaw Wows 'Em -- Coming Back to Joe's [Pub]

Source: All About Jazz

Rising British singing star Ian Shaw entranced the packed house at the Lincoln Center's Kaplan Penthouse last night with his rare and delightful blend of musical mastery, honesty, and humor. His new CD, A World Still Turning (441 Records), which has been getting increasing airplay, can also be heard nationally at 1200 listening stations at Border's and Barnes and Noble. Ian will be back for an April 17 gig at Joe's Pub, as well as some doings in Wasington, DC. ...

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Recording

Ian Shaw releases A World Still Turning on 441 Records

Ian Shaw releases A World Still Turning on 441 Records

Source: All About Jazz

441 Records are both pleased and honored to present to you the new release by IAN SHAW, A World Still Turning.

Shaw is a soul singer in the best sense of that term. There is truth and life in his voice, and he conveys the emotional resonance of a song every bit as well as he shapes and contours the original melodies with his personal brand of phrasing. Shaw possesses the musicality, articulation, harmonic sophistication and supple sense of rhythm ...

Sam Merrick
vocals

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Fire Horse

ECN Music
2024

buy

What's New

Silent Wish
2020

buy

Ian Shaw Italian...

Abeat Records
2020

buy

Live Encounter

Ubuntu Music
2019

buy

Live At ReVoice!

Roomspin Records
2015

buy

A Ghost In Every Bar

Splash Point Records
2012

buy

Black Dog

From: Fire Horse
By Ian Shaw

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