Lee Shaw Trio

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Life Lessons: jazz pianist and educator Lee Shaw
by Peter Aaron
Leonard Cohen didn’t release his first album until he was 32, ancient by pop music standards. It took Al Jarreau until he was 35 to do the same. Composers César Franck and Leoš Janácek didn’t get their breakthroughs until they were in their 50s, while Anton Bruckner didn’t even enter the field until he was 40. But when it comes to being called a late bloomer, at 84 jazz pianist and educator Lee Shaw has them all beat.


Although she’s had a glowing reputation among her peers and with in-the-know jazz lovers for almost half a century, Shaw didn’t fully emerge as a leader and active recording artist until the early 2000s, which have seen a full-on renaissance for the Albany-area resident. With her top-flight trio of Saugerties bassist Rich Syracuse and Shokan drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel, the pianist has recently found a welcoming second home on the European circuit and has released a string of acclaimed albums. To say Shaw puts her largely rut-treading, stay-put local jazz compatriots—even those half her age—to shame would be obvious. So, then, to what does the piano stylist attribute this later-in-life resurgence?

“Well, the real reason it began to happen is because of [Syracuse and Siegel],” Shaw says with characteristic modesty, also crediting her record label and publicist. “Rich and Jeff worked on us getting over to Europe and getting a label, and it’s been wonderful. We’re like family, the three of us. I feel so lucky.”

Shaw was born in the dust-blown town of Ada, Oklahoma, in 1926. Surprisingly cultured for its size and remoteness, Ada hosted concerts by visiting symphonic orchestras and even a local opera group, which, along with her school’s excellent music program, inspired Shaw to learn piano. With the help of lessons she was soon able to read music and play by ear the Great American Songbook standards she was hearing on the radio “in the 1930s, when they were new.” She left for Chicago to attend the American Conservatory of Music with the aim of becoming an accompanist for classical singers. But before that could happen, her musical life took an unexpected turn.

“I had studied [cocktail pianist] Cy Walter and could play in that style, but I felt that something was still missing,” Shaw says. “Then my agent took me to hear Count Basie, and I knew I had to study jazz.” At first it was difficult to find a jazz-sympathetic teacher among the conservatory’s classical faculty, but soon she was performing in a piano/bass duo. In 1961 she talked a club owner into also hiring a young drummer just in from New York, Stan Shaw, who would marry Lee only six months after they met, remaining with her for the rest of his life.


After a year in Puerto Rico and a brief return to Chicago, the two headed to Stan’s hometown. Although it would be decades until it recorded, the Lee Shaw Trio, which at different times featured such bass greats as Slam Stewart, Richard Davis, and Major Holley, became a hit at Manhattan’s jazz temples. By now Lee was also making a name for herself as a pianist, taking lessons from the great Oscar Peterson and even being offered a job by Lionel Hampton (not wanting to be away from Stan, she turned it down). Unfortunately for the Shaws, however, by this time the landscape was about to change.

“When the Beatles came along club owners were less interested in jazz,” recalls Lee. “And the [late ’60s] race riots made Harlem clubs unsafe for us.” So in 1971 the couple relocated to the Capital Region, were they became the royalty of the local scene by booking and backing imported horn players like Dexter Gordon, Al Cohn, Pepper Adams, Al Gray, Zoot Sims, and Frank Foster. In order to take care of Stan’s ailing parents, they moved again in 1976, to Florida, where Lee taught piano. There, she met a teenaged, classically weaned player who would become her best-known student: John Medseki of Medeski, Martin & Wood.

“As a musician I couldn’t have gotten a better foundation than the one I got from Lee,” says Medeski, a Woodstock resident. “She’s a living musical encyclopedia, she knows hundreds of tunes. And she’s just as hungry now to grow an - Roll Magzine

holiday gift guide fall education spas fashion spring/home eat, drink, sleep
art & image/elwood art & image/WSA music stage & screen CD review roll back community cuisine wine & spirits dollars & sense
art music stage & screen
roll portrait dear readers
2011 2010 2009
All content copyright © Roll Publishing, Inc
Visit us on the web at www.rollmagazine.com


< back

calendar


roll articles:
art & image/elwood
art & image/WSA
music
stage & screen
cd review
roll back

art highlights
music highlights
theatre highlights

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community
cuisine
wine & spirits
dollars & sense
roll portrait
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current issue pdf
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2011 2010 2009

Join us on Facebook
Join our mailing list < back
Life Lessons: jazz pianist and educator Lee Shaw
by Peter Aaron
Leonard Cohen didn’t release his first album until he was 32, ancient by pop music standards. It took Al Jarreau until he was 35 to do the same. Composers César Franck and Leoš Janácek didn’t get their breakthroughs until they were in their 50s, while Anton Bruckner didn’t even enter the field until he was 40. But when it comes to being called a late bloomer, at 84 jazz pianist and educator Lee Shaw has them all beat.


Although she’s had a glowing reputation among her peers and with in-the-know jazz lovers for almost half a century, Shaw didn’t fully emerge as a leader and active recording artist until the early 2000s, which have seen a full-on renaissance for the Albany-area resident. With her top-flight trio of Saugerties bassist Rich Syracuse and Shokan drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel, the pianist has recently found a welcoming second home on the European circuit and has released a string of acclaimed albums. To say Shaw puts her largely rut-treading, stay-put local jazz compatriots—even those half her age—to shame would be obvious. So, then, to what does the piano stylist attribute this later-in-life resurgence?

“Well, the real reason it began to happen is because of [Syracuse and Siegel],” Shaw says with characteristic modesty, also crediting her record label and publicist. “Rich and Jeff worked on us getting over to Europe and getting a label, and it’s been wonderful. We’re like family, the three of us. I feel so lucky.”

Shaw was born in the dust-blown town of Ada, Oklahoma, in 1926. Surprisingly cultured for its size and remoteness, Ada hosted concerts by visiting symphonic orchestras and even a local opera group, which, along with her school’s excellent music program, inspired Shaw to learn piano. With the help of lessons she was soon able to read music and play by ear the Great American Songbook standards she was hearing on the radio “in the 1930s, when they were new.” She left for Chicago to attend the American Conservatory of Music with the aim of becoming an accompanist for classical singers. But before that could happen, her musical life took an unexpected turn.

“I had studied [cocktail pianist] Cy Walter and could play in that style, but I felt that something was still missing,” Shaw says. “Then my agent took me to hear Count Basie, and I knew I had to study jazz.” At first it was difficult to find a jazz-sympathetic teacher among the conservatory’s classical faculty, but soon she was performing in a piano/bass duo. In 1961 she talked a club owner into also hiring a young drummer just in from New York, Stan Shaw, who would marry Lee only six months after they met, remaining with her for the rest of his life.


After a year in Puerto Rico and a brief return to Chicago, the two headed to Stan’s hometown. Although it would be decades until it recorded, the Lee Shaw Trio, which at different times featured such bass greats as Slam Stewart, Richard Davis, and Major Holley, became a hit at Manhattan’s jazz temples. By now Lee was also making a name for herself as a pianist, taking lessons from the great Oscar Peterson and even being offered a job by Lionel Hampton (not wanting to be away from Stan, she turned it down). Unfortunately for the Shaws, however, by this time the landscape was about to change.

“When the Beatles came along club owners were less interested in jazz,” recalls Lee. “And the [late ’60s] race riots made Harlem clubs unsafe for us.” So in 1971 the couple relocated to the Capital Region, were they became the royalty of the local scene by booking and backing imported horn players like Dexter Gordon, Al Cohn, Pepper Adams, Al Gray, Zoot Sims, and Frank Foster. In order to take care of Stan’s ailing parents, they moved again in 1976, to Florida, where Lee taught piano. There, she met a teenaged, classically weaned player who would become her best-known student: John Medseki of Medeski, Martin & Wood.

“As a musician I couldn’t have gotten a better foundation than the one I got from Lee,” says Medeski, a Woodstock resident. “She’s a living musical encyclopedia, she knows hundreds of tunes. And she’s just as hungry now to grow an - Roll Magzine

“Blossom”

Review Excerpts


all about jazz
“Blossom” Review
Jeff Dayton-Johnson
November 4, 2009

“Curiously, it happened that one of the most exciting “young” pianists on the scene today is an 80-something year old woman named Lee Shaw. Shaw’s playing has an energy and freshness that sounds great alongside other new rising stars of the piano-trio idiom.

Shaw’s “Blossom” is a tune that Bill Evans would have loved to play, and the fact that he never will be rued, the lovely version here is wonderful compensation.”
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

allmusic.com
“Blossom” Review
Michael G. Nastos
January 2010

Jazz pianist Lee Shaw is experiencing a career renaissance past her 80th birthday. A refined and intimate performer on her instrument, Shaw is not only reaping the rewards of her mature sound and voicings, but she is adding new material to a repertoire that is already quite expansive… Lee Shaw has much more left in the tank to draw upon on any given enchanted evening. “Blossom”… comes highly recommended to those who enjoy witty, well-rendered jazz that has no need for bluster or boisterousness.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Tonesetter
“Blossom” Review
Jos Demol
2009/5 (Belgium)

[In “Blossom”] the joy of playing is clearly transmitted. The impressionistic tinted title track of Blossom is followed by two diverse bluesy interpretations: Fats Navarro’s “Fats Blues” and her own composition “Blues 11”. Her own number sounds slightly more mysterious than the lively Fats Blues. Her “Holiday” then again is both sparkling and tuneful. Syracuse’s “Cool Jack” is deliciously up-tempo and Siege’s “Shifting Sands” is a gentle sweet waltz. Very surprising is “Virtuoso Rag” written by the long forgotten Johnny Gunarieri, three minutes solo piano perfection. The record is concluded with the subtle “Nipper’s Dream”. An absolute must!
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Cadence
"Blossom” Review
David Franklin
Jan-March 2010

The well balanced CD covers the usual mainstream bases… She performs them all with elegance, imagination, and superb technical control. Her associates provide her with a secure environment. Her bassist, Rich Syracuse, seems to know what she’s going to do as soon as she does. He contributes interesting solos of his own. Drummer Siegel provides solid time and tasteful accompaniment. Together they achieve ebullient sense of swing.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

all about jazz
Blossom” Review
J. Hunter
January 11, 2010

As someone in her sixth decade as a professional jazz pianist, Lee Shaw would be forgiven if she stuck with an Old School sound. Instead, the octogenarian educator has been expanding her musical comfort zone with an assist from her longtime rhythm section—bassist Rich Syracuse and Jeff "Siege" Siegel. As much of an influence on her as she is on them, the Lee Shaw Trio has developed a "family" aesthetic that is as riveting as the music on “Blossom”, their fourth release as a unit.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Metroland
"Blossom” Review One of the
“Best of 2009 Recordings”

From the waltz feel of the title track, to the shifting melodies of the disc-closing “Nipper’s Dream”, Lee Shaw’s “Blossom” is a delight. The pianist’s interplay with drummer Jeff Siegel and bassist Rich Syracuse led to such fruitful results as the insinuating “Blues 11” and the languid “Augo Triste”. Although mostly made up of Shaw’s originals, the rhythm section contributed a couple of tunes, and the cover of Fats Navarro’s “Fat’s Blues” was punchy.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Albanyjazz.com LOCAL HERO AWARD 2009

…..and "Blossom" is the Lee Shaw Trio’s best disc, period.
- Review Excerpts

LEE SHAW
Lee Shaw Trio: Live in Graz, CD/DVD
Artists Recording Collective
Every now and then a deserving but unsung jazz talent emerges into the national limelight after paying dues in perpetuity and enduring the blues in endless obscurity.
A classic case is Lee Shaw, an 82-year-old wizard pianist/composer who, after a lifetime totally committed to jazz, finally gets her due with this fine CD/DVD package celebrating her life and music.
In the most happily deserved release of 2008, Shaw, a classically trained pianist with top bop chops, displays her rich, expressive palette. It ranges from her impressionistic harmonic sense on several originals-riffing, Ravel-like reveries -to her earthy blues feeling on Ahmad Jamal's "Night Mist Blues."
What makes the album really tick is the crisp sense of interplay percolating among Shaw and her longtime, younger collaborators, the extremely melodic bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff "Siege" Siegel.
If the vibrant tracks on the CD make you wonder why Shaw is a household name only in her native state of Oklahoma, she explains it all on the bonus DVD in a warm, informal interview.
A modest, irresistible person of immodest, irrepressible talent, she comes across both in the interview and at the keyboard as an artist who had a virtually religious calling for jazz, come what may. Her inspirational life-story's message to all similarly inspired young players just starting out: Never quit, no matter what.
Essential download: "Street of Dreams"



- Owen McNally

Many excellent jazz musicians go relatively unnoticed in their careers. Well known and respected among fellow players, they often settle down to playing gigs locally, away from mainstream notice, while recording occasionally. Such a person is pianist Lee Shaw.
Now at 82, Shaw's jazz chops are still well-honed as heard in the new release Lee Shaw Trio: Live in Graz, recorded in Graz, Austria. Included with the CD is a DVD which features footage and stills from the trio's 2007 European tour, plus a bonus track not included on the CD. The real value of the footage, though, is seen in interviews with Shaw, both alone and with her longtime colleagues, bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel.

Born in Oklahoma in 1926, Shaw left for Chicago to study classical music but soon turned to jazz. She married drummer Stan Shaw, formed a trio and went on to New York City. The two moved to Albany in the seventies where she began a career in teaching music and the trio started playing around the area. After husband Stan died in 2001, she formed her current trio.

Over the years she has played with many greats from Dexter Gordon to Thad Jones. Her influences include Oscar Peterson and Billy Taylor. On this recording her stately style suggests Peterson, if not for his whirlwind technique but his swinging sensibility.

The trio is exemplary-bassist Syracuse weaving in and out of her solos, while getting plenty of time to show off his marvelous creativity. Also getting many opportunities to shine, drummer Siegel is a solid anchor and an inventive soloist.

The play list is a mixture of interesting, seldom-heard tunes, ranging from Billy Taylor's "Easy Walker" (joyfully exhibiting her vibrant, straight-ahead style), Victor Young's "Street of Dreams" (effectively conjuring an hypnotic spell, abetted by Syracuse's strong bass) and Ahmad Jamahl's "Night Mist" (wonderfully letting go, leading the group in an all-out effort, concluding with Siegel's rocking drum solo).

Among Shaw's outstanding compositions is the thoughtful, pensive "Song Without Words"; the impressionistic Debussy-like "Rain Threads" which includes Siegel's cymbal shower; and her memoriam to husband Stan, "Stan's Song," highlighted by Syracuse's haunting bowed-bass solo.

This album is a treasure-waiting for jazz fans to find.


- Larry Taylor

Down Beat :: April, 2009
Chris Robinson

Lee Shaw Trio
Live In Graz
Artist Recording Collective
3½ stars


Recorded at Café Stockwerk in Graz, Austria in 2007, Live In Graz showcases the octogenarian pianist Lee Shaw and her trio. Shaw’s highly cohesive trio consists of bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel, who play together so well and change direction so deftly that it’s as if they share a collective consciousness. But this does not mean that their individual voices are suppressed. Syracuse shows off his melodicism and inventiveness on several lengthy solos, most notably on “Easy Walker” “Song Without Words” and the lovely waltz “Rain Threads”.

Shaw has a clean, delicate touch, with which she pulls the notes from the piano rather than pushing them out from it in predominately single note melodic lines. The trio’s every utterance contains constant dialogue and give and take: Siegel surges with Shaw’s lines and urges her on with creative cymbal and snare work. Syracuse often sits on pedal points to help Shaw build tension, and she is more than happy laying out, putting the spotlight on her colleagues.

A supplemental DVD includes tour photos, a bonus track from the concert, video footage from the trio’s Reutlingen, Germany, concert, as well as interviews with Shaw and the trio. ----

Live In Graz: Easy Walker; Song Without Words; Elegy; Rain Threads; Street of Dreams; Foots; Stan’s Song; Night Mist.
- Chris Robinson

Many excellent jazz musicians go relatively unnoticed in their careers. Well known and respected among fellow players, they often settle down to playing gigs locally, away from mainstream notice, while recording occasionally. Such a person is pianist Lee Shaw.
Now at 82, Shaw's jazz chops are still well-honed as heard in the new release Lee Shaw Trio: Live in Graz, recorded in Graz, Austria. Included with the CD is a DVD which features footage and stills from the trio's 2007 European tour, plus a bonus track not included on the CD. The real value of the footage, though, is seen in interviews with Shaw, both alone and with her longtime colleagues, bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel.

Born in Oklahoma in 1926, Shaw left for Chicago to study classical music but soon turned to jazz. She married drummer Stan Shaw, formed a trio and went on to New York City. The two moved to Albany in the seventies where she began a career in teaching music and the trio started playing around the area. After husband Stan died in 2001, she formed her current trio.

Over the years she has played with many greats from Dexter Gordon to Thad Jones. Her influences include Oscar Peterson and Billy Taylor. On this recording her stately style suggests Peterson, if not for his whirlwind technique but his swinging sensibility.

The trio is exemplary-bassist Syracuse weaving in and out of her solos, while getting plenty of time to show off his marvelous creativity. Also getting many opportunities to shine, drummer Siegel is a solid anchor and an inventive soloist.

The play list is a mixture of interesting, seldom-heard tunes, ranging from Billy Taylor's "Easy Walker" (joyfully exhibiting her vibrant, straight-ahead style), Victor Young's "Street of Dreams" (effectively conjuring an hypnotic spell, abetted by Syracuse's strong bass) and Ahmad Jamahl's "Night Mist" (wonderfully letting go, leading the group in an all-out effort, concluding with Siegel's rocking drum solo).

Among Shaw's outstanding compositions is the thoughtful, pensive "Song Without Words"; the impressionistic Debussy-like "Rain Threads" which includes Siegel's cymbal shower; and her memoriam to husband Stan, "Stan's Song," highlighted by Syracuse's haunting bowed-bass solo.

This album is a treasure-waiting for jazz fans to find.


- Larry Taylor

Lee Shaw Trio Blossom
(ARC)
While the piano trio may be a tried-and-true configuration, under the leadership of a master, it's by no means staid and unimaginative. Blossom doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, hut provides abundant evidence that there is plenty of spark left in the format, as well as in octoge¬narian pianist Lee Shaw. She and her longtime cohorts, bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff "Siege" Siege!, remain consistently inventive and enjoyable throughout the 10 song set

The Shaw-penned title track opens the disc, her piano accented by Siegel's cymbal shadings. Unless you're listening closely, you may not even notice when Syracuse joins in, until his solo halfway through makes it obvious. "Fat's Blues"
is one of only two non-originals here, but Shaw and company find new expression in the Pats Navarro-credited piece, which swings irresistibly. Shaw's own "Blues 11" follows at a slower pace, as Syracuse again gets plenty of solo space. The bass¬ist plays high in the register, with Shaw's delicate camping in the background, resulting in a more chamberlike and less traditional blues sound. The group slows for a false ending, then picks up the pace before a final ritard to the end.
The threesome then sets off on the jaunty "Holiday." Shaw's gentle rolls and Siegel's insistent cymbals share the driving, with Syracuse along for the ride. In keeping with the festive mood,
a read of Siegel's "Shifting Sands" throws in sly quotes from "The Christmas Song." Syracuse wrote two tunes here, the up-tempo "Cool Jack" and "Sleeper," the latter of which features inventive stick-work from SIegel. But whoever the composer, Shaw and her bandrnates make sure the music is mellifluous, melodic and full of moxie.
- Ross Boissoneau

- Jazziz

Lee Shaw is a veteran pianist who also should be
well-known. A lyrical player who is particularly
effective on ballads and swings tastefully on more
uptempo material, she normally performs standards from
the great American songbook. However the program on
Originals consists entirely of her own compositions.
My favorites of the nine are “Prairie Child” (which
hints rhythmically at her memory of riding a horse as
a child), “Song Without Words” and the picturesque
“Rainthreads.” Ms. Shaw, bassist Rich Syracuse and
drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel often seem to think as one
and the music is both beautiful and quite
unpredictable. This highly enjoyable and thoughtful
outing is recommended and available from
www.leeshaw.org.



- Scott Yanow

Lee Shaw is a veteran pianist who also should be
well-known. A lyrical player who is particularly
effective on ballads and swings tastefully on more
uptempo material, she normally performs standards from
the great American songbook. However the program on
Originals consists entirely of her own compositions.
My favorites of the nine are “Prairie Child” (which
hints rhythmically at her memory of riding a horse as
a child), “Song Without Words” and the picturesque
“Rainthreads.” Ms. Shaw, bassist Rich Syracuse and
drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel often seem to think as one
and the music is both beautiful and quite
unpredictable. This highly enjoyable and thoughtful
outing is recommended and available from
www.leeshaw.org.



- Scott Yanow

Audiophile Audition
Five Stars

Mike Birman
February 26, 2009

This long overdue tribute to a great pianist belongs in every jazz collection.

Lee Shaw Trio - Live in Graz - CD Recorded at Café Stockwerk, Graz, Austria (77:23) + DVD (4:3 color) of live concert, bonus tracks, photos and Interviews with Lee Shaw - ARC-2062 (www.leeshaw.org) *****
Pianist Lee Shaw, born in Ada, Oklahoma in 1926, absorbed the "Great American Songbook" as it was created. Perhaps that explains her fresh and vibrant interpretive skill. She studied classical piano in Chicago and her solos often reflect that additional musical depth. Jazz soon became her passion and she began playing in clubs all over the city. It was there that she met the New York native drummer Stan Shaw whom she married. They formed a piano trio and eventually moved to New York, where they played at top venues such as Birdland. She resisted offers to play with such major bandleaders as Lionel Hampton, opting to focus on the trio with her husband. After their move to the Albany area, where Shaw has lived these past 30 years, they continued to play with the major musicians who came through town. After Stan's death in 2001, Shaw began working with bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel. This is the Lee Shaw Trio and they are superb.

Upon learning that the Lee Shaw Trio would be performing in Graz, the Austrian Broadcast Company extended an invitation to record the concert for the radio. This CD comes from that recording and it is merely a portion of what the trio played that evening. At the Art Gallery (World of Basses) in Reutlingen Germany, they played for more than two hours, and some footage from that concert is presented on the accompanying DVD. Also on the DVD are some fascinating interviews with Shaw who recounts a personal history of jazz that is never less than insightful. The concert portion is filmed from the rear of the hall but visibility is passable, as is the sound.

The CD makes for splendid listening. The influence of Oscar Peterson is obvious in Shaw's playing but she utterly transcends all influences. Years of experience as well as her classical training have created a unique style that is deep, harmonically daring and thematically sophisticated. Though her playing is often sumptuous Shaw is unafraid and will juxtapose passages of lyrically spare but still beautifully expressive moments that are utterly ravishing. Listen to Victor Young's "Street of Dreams" or Ahmad Jamal's lovely "Night Mist Blues" on the CD to hear Shaw's brilliant pianism to great effect. Her five originals on the CD are all strong compositions as well. Bassist Rich Syracuse plays some splendidly inventive solos and drummer Jeff Siegel provides some thoroughly supple solos during his turns at bat.

Both CD and DVD make for wonderful listening. The personal reflections on jazz that grace the DVD only increase its value to the jazz aficionado. The CD sound is warm and natural with a close focus that highlights each instrument's acoustics. Listen to Syracuse's bowed bass on "Stan's Song", written as a tribute to her husband by Shaw, to appreciate the rich and natural recorded sound. The DVD is somewhat more remote in sound but quite well presented. This set is a long overdue tribute to a great pianist whose brilliant contribution to jazz is why the music always remains vibrant and fresh. This set belongs in every jazz fan's collection. Most strongly recommended!
- Mike Birman

Audiophile Audition
Five Stars

Mike Birman
February 26, 2009

This long overdue tribute to a great pianist belongs in every jazz collection.

Lee Shaw Trio - Live in Graz - CD Recorded at Café Stockwerk, Graz, Austria (77:23) + DVD (4:3 color) of live concert, bonus tracks, photos and Interviews with Lee Shaw - ARC-2062 (www.leeshaw.org) *****
Pianist Lee Shaw, born in Ada, Oklahoma in 1926, absorbed the "Great American Songbook" as it was created. Perhaps that explains her fresh and vibrant interpretive skill. She studied classical piano in Chicago and her solos often reflect that additional musical depth. Jazz soon became her passion and she began playing in clubs all over the city. It was there that she met the New York native drummer Stan Shaw whom she married. They formed a piano trio and eventually moved to New York, where they played at top venues such as Birdland. She resisted offers to play with such major bandleaders as Lionel Hampton, opting to focus on the trio with her husband. After their move to the Albany area, where Shaw has lived these past 30 years, they continued to play with the major musicians who came through town. After Stan's death in 2001, Shaw began working with bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel. This is the Lee Shaw Trio and they are superb.

Upon learning that the Lee Shaw Trio would be performing in Graz, the Austrian Broadcast Company extended an invitation to record the concert for the radio. This CD comes from that recording and it is merely a portion of what the trio played that evening. At the Art Gallery (World of Basses) in Reutlingen Germany, they played for more than two hours, and some footage from that concert is presented on the accompanying DVD. Also on the DVD are some fascinating interviews with Shaw who recounts a personal history of jazz that is never less than insightful. The concert portion is filmed from the rear of the hall but visibility is passable, as is the sound.

The CD makes for splendid listening. The influence of Oscar Peterson is obvious in Shaw's playing but she utterly transcends all influences. Years of experience as well as her classical training have created a unique style that is deep, harmonically daring and thematically sophisticated. Though her playing is often sumptuous Shaw is unafraid and will juxtapose passages of lyrically spare but still beautifully expressive moments that are utterly ravishing. Listen to Victor Young's "Street of Dreams" or Ahmad Jamal's lovely "Night Mist Blues" on the CD to hear Shaw's brilliant pianism to great effect. Her five originals on the CD are all strong compositions as well. Bassist Rich Syracuse plays some splendidly inventive solos and drummer Jeff Siegel provides some thoroughly supple solos during his turns at bat.

Both CD and DVD make for wonderful listening. The personal reflections on jazz that grace the DVD only increase its value to the jazz aficionado. The CD sound is warm and natural with a close focus that highlights each instrument's acoustics. Listen to Syracuse's bowed bass on "Stan's Song", written as a tribute to her husband by Shaw, to appreciate the rich and natural recorded sound. The DVD is somewhat more remote in sound but quite well presented. This set is a long overdue tribute to a great pianist whose brilliant contribution to jazz is why the music always remains vibrant and fresh. This set belongs in every jazz fan's collection. Most strongly recommended!
- Mike Birman

Capital Region’s
First Lady of Jazz

Lee Shaw makes every song new, sees her trio and listeners as family.

Daily Gazette,
Schenectady, New York
dailygazette.com

Sunday, March 7, 2010
By Jeff Wilkin


Lee Shaw plays at the Stockade Inn with bassist Rich Syracuse, right, who has played with Shaw for over 17 years.

Friday night at Schenectady’s Stockade Inn, and people sit in elegant, high-backed chairs by the fireplace.
Others chat on dark green sofas near the front of the room, legs tucked behind long coffee tables. More people are at the bar, sipping cosmopolitans and martinis from conical glasses with long stems.
Some conversation stops when Lee Shaw is ready at her piano. She and her longtime companions, bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel, begin a Dave Brubeck composition; you can feel the reverence and respect in the room, from people who want to see sure hands in action and hear sure jazz swirl throughout the room.

Pianist Lee Shaw, the Capital Region's first lady of jazz, performs at the Stockade Inn in Schenectady

Cohoes resident Shaw has both. She’s spent 40 years with her own trio, and her career behind ivory keys has taken her to clubs, concerts and festivals throughout the United States and Europe. She has been described as the Capital Region’s first lady of jazz.
“It’s very flattering,” she says of the title. “And I think that name was used to refer to Marian McPartland for a long time. It does have a nice ring to it.”

The Lee Shaw Trio, featuring Lee Shaw on keyboards, Rich Seymour on bass and Jeff Siegel on drums, performs at The Stockade Inn in Schenectady.

Shaw, dressed this night in a bright red jacket and black slacks, is generous with her time — spending nearly an hour answering questions about her life, even as the 7 p.m. appointment with the piano ticks closer.
Thinking as one
She answers quickly about retirement.
“Why?” she asks. “What’s better than what I do, to learn and grow? My bassist and I have been together coming on 18 years. Jeff, the drummer, has been with us for nine years. I think both of them are extremely talented and creative, and sometimes it’s almost as though I’m listening to them tell me where to go. One of the things many critics have noted is we seem to be a family, we seem to think as one person. And that is very rewarding and stimulating and wonderful. It’s like when you fall in love with somebody and that person is able to read your mind.”
Shaw’s life has been full of the rewarding, the stimulating, the wonderful. She was born in Cushing, Okla., in 1926 and was raised in Ada, Oklahoma’s Bible Belt country.
Music was an early love. Shaw began playing piano at age 5, studying classical methods and graduating from the Oklahoma College for Women with a bachelor’s degree. She later received a master’s degree at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.
Her only exposure to jazz as a teenager was on the radio, where she first heard Art Tatum and a cocktail pianist named Cy Walter. By the 1950s, she was working as a cocktail pianist in clubs all over Chicago.
The joy of jazz
“My booking agent took me to hear Count Basie one time and my line is, ‘I died and went to heaven,’?” she said. “And I started all over again because I knew absolutely none of the vocabulary. But the swing, the joy! I was going to be a professional accompanist. I was a dynamite sight reader and I’d done a lot of accompanying in my life. The only jazz I ever heard in Oklahoma was big band and I didn’t even consider that to be jazz.”
She began to listen to pianist Oscar Peterson, and that led her to pianist George Shearing. “This would have been in the late 1950s, early 1960s, so all the people who were around at that time were people who influenced me.”
Music consumed whole days, week after week.
“I had so much to learn,” Shaw said. “I was working five nights a week solo in Chicago. I’d get up in the morning, 10 o’clock, have a cup of coffee, go to the piano and sit there until it was time to have my dinner, dress and go to my gig at night. And I did that over and over. I had some help, there was this bassist who helped me a lot. He’d bring his bass and try to teach me the vocabulary and voicing. I also studied for a little while with a man named Alan Swain.”
The musician wasn’t on her own after meeting drummer Stan Shaw in Chicago. They formed a piano trio and, after a 1962 wedding, a personal duo.
The Shaws moved to Puerto Rico shortly after their marriage, where Lee studied at the Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico. The couple were in New York City a year later, filling the stage at The Embers, Village Vanguard, the Half Note and other places. The Shaws moved to Albany in 1971 and made fans. The fans and friends connection is one of the nicest things about the music business.
“It’s very gratifying and you get to know them, some of them,” Shaw said. “Many of them become friends, so it goes beyond being fans.”
Sometimes - Daily Gazette

Capital Region’s
First Lady of Jazz

Lee Shaw makes every song new, sees her trio and listeners as family.

Daily Gazette,
Schenectady, New York
dailygazette.com

Sunday, March 7, 2010
By Jeff Wilkin


Lee Shaw plays at the Stockade Inn with bassist Rich Syracuse, right, who has played with Shaw for over 17 years.

Friday night at Schenectady’s Stockade Inn, and people sit in elegant, high-backed chairs by the fireplace.
Others chat on dark green sofas near the front of the room, legs tucked behind long coffee tables. More people are at the bar, sipping cosmopolitans and martinis from conical glasses with long stems.
Some conversation stops when Lee Shaw is ready at her piano. She and her longtime companions, bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel, begin a Dave Brubeck composition; you can feel the reverence and respect in the room, from people who want to see sure hands in action and hear sure jazz swirl throughout the room.

Pianist Lee Shaw, the Capital Region's first lady of jazz, performs at the Stockade Inn in Schenectady

Cohoes resident Shaw has both. She’s spent 40 years with her own trio, and her career behind ivory keys has taken her to clubs, concerts and festivals throughout the United States and Europe. She has been described as the Capital Region’s first lady of jazz.
“It’s very flattering,” she says of the title. “And I think that name was used to refer to Marian McPartland for a long time. It does have a nice ring to it.”

The Lee Shaw Trio, featuring Lee Shaw on keyboards, Rich Seymour on bass and Jeff Siegel on drums, performs at The Stockade Inn in Schenectady.

Shaw, dressed this night in a bright red jacket and black slacks, is generous with her time — spending nearly an hour answering questions about her life, even as the 7 p.m. appointment with the piano ticks closer.
Thinking as one
She answers quickly about retirement.
“Why?” she asks. “What’s better than what I do, to learn and grow? My bassist and I have been together coming on 18 years. Jeff, the drummer, has been with us for nine years. I think both of them are extremely talented and creative, and sometimes it’s almost as though I’m listening to them tell me where to go. One of the things many critics have noted is we seem to be a family, we seem to think as one person. And that is very rewarding and stimulating and wonderful. It’s like when you fall in love with somebody and that person is able to read your mind.”
Shaw’s life has been full of the rewarding, the stimulating, the wonderful. She was born in Cushing, Okla., in 1926 and was raised in Ada, Oklahoma’s Bible Belt country.
Music was an early love. Shaw began playing piano at age 5, studying classical methods and graduating from the Oklahoma College for Women with a bachelor’s degree. She later received a master’s degree at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.
Her only exposure to jazz as a teenager was on the radio, where she first heard Art Tatum and a cocktail pianist named Cy Walter. By the 1950s, she was working as a cocktail pianist in clubs all over Chicago.
The joy of jazz
“My booking agent took me to hear Count Basie one time and my line is, ‘I died and went to heaven,’?” she said. “And I started all over again because I knew absolutely none of the vocabulary. But the swing, the joy! I was going to be a professional accompanist. I was a dynamite sight reader and I’d done a lot of accompanying in my life. The only jazz I ever heard in Oklahoma was big band and I didn’t even consider that to be jazz.”
She began to listen to pianist Oscar Peterson, and that led her to pianist George Shearing. “This would have been in the late 1950s, early 1960s, so all the people who were around at that time were people who influenced me.”
Music consumed whole days, week after week.
“I had so much to learn,” Shaw said. “I was working five nights a week solo in Chicago. I’d get up in the morning, 10 o’clock, have a cup of coffee, go to the piano and sit there until it was time to have my dinner, dress and go to my gig at night. And I did that over and over. I had some help, there was this bassist who helped me a lot. He’d bring his bass and try to teach me the vocabulary and voicing. I also studied for a little while with a man named Alan Swain.”
The musician wasn’t on her own after meeting drummer Stan Shaw in Chicago. They formed a piano trio and, after a 1962 wedding, a personal duo.
The Shaws moved to Puerto Rico shortly after their marriage, where Lee studied at the Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico. The couple were in New York City a year later, filling the stage at The Embers, Village Vanguard, the Half Note and other places. The Shaws moved to Albany in 1971 and made fans. The fans and friends connection is one of the nicest things about the music business.
“It’s very gratifying and you get to know them, some of them,” Shaw said. “Many of them become friends, so it goes beyond being fans.”
Sometimes - Daily Gazette

Success can come at any age. Just ask pianist Lee Shaw. The 83-year-old keyboardist was largely unknown to the masses until the start of this century. The classically-trained Shaw turned to jazz when she saw Count Basie and soon after formed a jazz trio with her husband, drummer Stan Shaw, performed in New York City and then relocated to Albany, where the two played with visiting musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Frank Foster and Chico Hamilton. She also became a noted instructor: John Medeski of Medeski, Martin & Wood is one celebrated student. After her husband passed away, Shaw created her current trio with bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel and released several recordings, including her 2008 breakthrough CD/DVD package, Live in Graz,

Shaw's fourth trio outing, Blossom, brings a freshness to the crowded piano trio field. On eight originals (five by Shaw, two by Syracuse and one by Siegel) and a couple of covers the threesome shows a singular style that is contemporary but classic which reveals a memorable approach to the basic bass, drums and keys setup.

The band deftly proceeds from ragtime to bop-based blues to gentle ballads with equal assurance. Shaw's balmy opener "Blossom" combines Bill Evans' harmonic sensitivity with Oscar Peterson's joie de vivre. The composition demonstrates Shaw's prowess as composer and player: she flirts with fertile chord changes while skillfully shifting from ebullient swing to an almost classical inclination that echoes her conservatory education.


The three S's (Shaw, Syracuse and Siegel) also handle blues with confidence. On a jaunty version of Fats Navarro's "Fats' Blues" Shaw discloses her soulful side with incisive blues chords as she manipulates the piano's low end while she romps out a frisky melody with her right hand. Shaw's "Blues 11" has a sense of sweetness but also conveys a deeper undercurrent that has a lingering scent of mysteriousness.

Syracuse furnishes a pair of pieces. "Cool Jack" is anything but: it's an uncorked hard-bop burner where Shaw spins, bobs and weaves across the 88 keys while Syracuse provides a steadfast bass and Siegel confirms he has been studying Art Blakey and other stalwarts. The ironically titled "Sleeper" is a bluesy medium-tempo tumbler where the two rhythm aces conspire together like the old friends they are, cultivating a fine bass/drum duet offset by Shaw's harmonics.

The longest numbers are also the most tonally meditative. Shaw's reflective "Algo Triste" features a graceful, dexterous Syracuse improvisation and lustrous Shaw contributions. Siegel's subtle shadings merit close attention, especially his articulate cymbal ticks and percussive tinges. Siegel's smoothly sloping "Shifting Sands" has a similar slant that has an elegant waltz-time arrangement. It's a good case that testifies that simple and nice is all that is sometimes needed. There is a lot more here to examine: for example, Shaw's solo rendition of Johnny Guarnieri's sprightly "Virtuoso Rag" is a marvel.

It may have taken a few too many decades, but Lee Shaw has arrived in the spotlight and she is well worth discovering and listening to.
- audaud.com

Success can come at any age. Just ask pianist Lee Shaw. The 83-year-old keyboardist was largely unknown to the masses until the start of this century. The classically-trained Shaw turned to jazz when she saw Count Basie and soon after formed a jazz trio with her husband, drummer Stan Shaw, performed in New York City and then relocated to Albany, where the two played with visiting musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Frank Foster and Chico Hamilton. She also became a noted instructor: John Medeski of Medeski, Martin & Wood is one celebrated student. After her husband passed away, Shaw created her current trio with bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel and released several recordings, including her 2008 breakthrough CD/DVD package, Live in Graz,

Shaw's fourth trio outing, Blossom, brings a freshness to the crowded piano trio field. On eight originals (five by Shaw, two by Syracuse and one by Siegel) and a couple of covers the threesome shows a singular style that is contemporary but classic which reveals a memorable approach to the basic bass, drums and keys setup.

The band deftly proceeds from ragtime to bop-based blues to gentle ballads with equal assurance. Shaw's balmy opener "Blossom" combines Bill Evans' harmonic sensitivity with Oscar Peterson's joie de vivre. The composition demonstrates Shaw's prowess as composer and player: she flirts with fertile chord changes while skillfully shifting from ebullient swing to an almost classical inclination that echoes her conservatory education.


The three S's (Shaw, Syracuse and Siegel) also handle blues with confidence. On a jaunty version of Fats Navarro's "Fats' Blues" Shaw discloses her soulful side with incisive blues chords as she manipulates the piano's low end while she romps out a frisky melody with her right hand. Shaw's "Blues 11" has a sense of sweetness but also conveys a deeper undercurrent that has a lingering scent of mysteriousness.

Syracuse furnishes a pair of pieces. "Cool Jack" is anything but: it's an uncorked hard-bop burner where Shaw spins, bobs and weaves across the 88 keys while Syracuse provides a steadfast bass and Siegel confirms he has been studying Art Blakey and other stalwarts. The ironically titled "Sleeper" is a bluesy medium-tempo tumbler where the two rhythm aces conspire together like the old friends they are, cultivating a fine bass/drum duet offset by Shaw's harmonics.

The longest numbers are also the most tonally meditative. Shaw's reflective "Algo Triste" features a graceful, dexterous Syracuse improvisation and lustrous Shaw contributions. Siegel's subtle shadings merit close attention, especially his articulate cymbal ticks and percussive tinges. Siegel's smoothly sloping "Shifting Sands" has a similar slant that has an elegant waltz-time arrangement. It's a good case that testifies that simple and nice is all that is sometimes needed. There is a lot more here to examine: for example, Shaw's solo rendition of Johnny Guarnieri's sprightly "Virtuoso Rag" is a marvel.

It may have taken a few too many decades, but Lee Shaw has arrived in the spotlight and she is well worth discovering and listening to.
- audaud.com

"Blossom" Review

All About Jazz
by J. Hunter

As someone in her sixth decade as a professional jazz pianist, Lee Shaw would be forgiven if she stuck with an Old School sound. Instead, the octogenarian educator has been expanding her musical comfort zone with an assist from her longtime rhythm section—bassist Rich Syracuse and Jeff "Siege" Siegel. As much of an influence on her as she is on them, the Lee Shaw Trio has developed a "family" aesthetic that is as riveting as the music on Blossom, their fourth release as a unit.
"Fats' Blues" is a cooking Fats Navarro tune that would have been an excellent up-tempo disc opener; Shaw's forceful, sassy attack combines a delightful sense of whimsy with a genuine love for the standard and the time it came from. Instead, Shaw and her partners chose to open Blossom with the title track, a pastoral waltz that begins with Shaw's in-the-clear, ruminative figure and then literally blossoms like a garden in springtime. Shaw's piano dances, Syracuse diligently counters, and Siegel makes the cymbals sizzle with some serious brush work. It's a gorgeous picture, and the whole band paints it.
Syracuse and Siegel have big voices, and both get plenty of exercise on Blossom. The pair's meditative groove sets the tone for Shaw's "Algo Triste," one of two long-form pieces on the disc. The other is "Shifting Sands," a Siegel composition most recently heard on Siege's own quartet disc Live in Europe (ARC, 2008). Shaw gives the hypnotic piece a gorgeous texture worthy of Bill Evans, working the haunting melody while Syracuse goes to town on his solo. Syracuse contributes two pieces of his own (the hard-bopping "Cool Jack" and the mid-tempo blues "Sleeper"), and a splendid time is had on both.
Johnny Guarneri's "Virtuoso Rag" has that Old School sound Shaw might have pursued. She certainly has a blast with the solo-piano piece, working the tempo up and down as she attacks the tune with an unbridled joy. But Shaw shows nothing but joy on Blossom, whether she's playing the Carnaval-inspired "Holiday" or the sweetly sad "Nipper's Dream." This music works because this group loves to play it, and loves to work with each other. No surprise: the family that plays together, stays together.
- All About Jazz

"Blossom" Review

All About Jazz
by J. Hunter

As someone in her sixth decade as a professional jazz pianist, Lee Shaw would be forgiven if she stuck with an Old School sound. Instead, the octogenarian educator has been expanding her musical comfort zone with an assist from her longtime rhythm section—bassist Rich Syracuse and Jeff "Siege" Siegel. As much of an influence on her as she is on them, the Lee Shaw Trio has developed a "family" aesthetic that is as riveting as the music on Blossom, their fourth release as a unit.
"Fats' Blues" is a cooking Fats Navarro tune that would have been an excellent up-tempo disc opener; Shaw's forceful, sassy attack combines a delightful sense of whimsy with a genuine love for the standard and the time it came from. Instead, Shaw and her partners chose to open Blossom with the title track, a pastoral waltz that begins with Shaw's in-the-clear, ruminative figure and then literally blossoms like a garden in springtime. Shaw's piano dances, Syracuse diligently counters, and Siegel makes the cymbals sizzle with some serious brush work. It's a gorgeous picture, and the whole band paints it.
Syracuse and Siegel have big voices, and both get plenty of exercise on Blossom. The pair's meditative groove sets the tone for Shaw's "Algo Triste," one of two long-form pieces on the disc. The other is "Shifting Sands," a Siegel composition most recently heard on Siege's own quartet disc Live in Europe (ARC, 2008). Shaw gives the hypnotic piece a gorgeous texture worthy of Bill Evans, working the haunting melody while Syracuse goes to town on his solo. Syracuse contributes two pieces of his own (the hard-bopping "Cool Jack" and the mid-tempo blues "Sleeper"), and a splendid time is had on both.
Johnny Guarneri's "Virtuoso Rag" has that Old School sound Shaw might have pursued. She certainly has a blast with the solo-piano piece, working the tempo up and down as she attacks the tune with an unbridled joy. But Shaw shows nothing but joy on Blossom, whether she's playing the Carnaval-inspired "Holiday" or the sweetly sad "Nipper's Dream." This music works because this group loves to play it, and loves to work with each other. No surprise: the family that plays together, stays together.
- All About Jazz