Shawn Maxwell Originals by George W. Carroll/The Musicians’ Ombudsman
Published on October 2nd, 2006
Every once in awhile an avante garde jazz artist comes along & makes total sense of his music. Reedman jazzer Shawn Maxwell is one of this ilk. As my readers know, I’m not too enamoured to Shawn’s musical idiom, but his orig. music demands both our time & attention. Shawn capitalizes in giving us round ringing tones to enjoy, & employs a certain interesting variety of attack in articulating his fine jazz reed phrasing. And, the way he caresses the notes on his slower tempos is certainly indicative of a seasoned journeyman jazz artist. This is a jazzer with an original approach to his idiom who is comfortable in the fields of funk, latin, straight ahead, & certainly in the areas of raw improvisational arenas.
