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 we associate with the most urbane icons of our jazz vocal tradition, but with a little something extra: an edgy, lived-in feeling that marks the work of singer-songwriters truly beyond category.
Even though jazz is a music that thrives on danger, jazz listeners can be notoriously unforgiving when they feel an artist is straying too far afield, but throughout A World Still Turning Shaw defines his own brand of truth, and it is compelling. Much as Sonny Rollins has made a career out of transforming the most arcane pop curiosities into jazz standards, Shaw has a keen and discerning eye for the fresh melodic and rhythmic possibilities inherent in the popular music of baby boomers and Generation X-ers alike, as well as those chestnuts that inspired his own archetypes such as Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughan and Shirley Horn. He makes them all cohere in the manner of the classic Tin Pan Alley/Jazz song-form idiom, draws them into his own aesthetic (not the other way around), imbues each one with a sense of something personal and emotional and lived-in, and more importantly, makes it all swing.
This music is both emotional and entertaining. It leaves virtually no one who hears it unaffected. From the very first track, a cover of Gilbert O'Sullivan's Alone Again, Naturally, the listener is taken into a world of diverse and deeply moving sound expression. We are especially fond of that first track, but there's more. Try Peace, and Soon As The Weather Breaks for a cook's tour of what Ian has brought to the table.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
