Billy Shaw's 1993 Avant Garde !Sassy! Re-issue Now Available

Death Jazz Pioneer Returns to Free Jazz Traditionalism

Press Release by: Billy Shaw

Venue: CDBaby / Tower Records

May 16, 2005 -

The anticipated re-issue of the 1993 avant garde free jazz album !Sassy! by sax player Billy Shaw is now available! This digitally remastered re-issue contains the best of the original album along with two new songs never before released. !Sassy! was originally a collection of alto-sax compositions but has been expanded to include later selections featuring tenor and soprano sax as well. Known as one of the pioneers in Death Jazz with the popular avant garde trio Shovin' Sunshine, Billy Shaw has seen a resurgence in the popularity of this artform and his bands' forms of music, culminating in the recent re-issues of the original Shovin' Sunshine releases as well as his !Sassy! solo debut.

Shortly after !Sassy!'s original release, Shovin' Sunshine was formed, and Billy went to tenor sax fulltime; no further recordings of Billy Shaw alto sax were ever made. Many people considered Sassy! to be Billy Shaw at his most lyrical and melodic, markedly different from his characteristically fiery tenor playing. For the sheer fun of being able to present more of the facets of Billy Shaw the player, we've included two new tracks on this re-issue. The previously unreleased "The End of Days" (1995) features his unique tenor sound in the same trio setting with which !Sassy! was originally recorded three years prior. The other new track, "Sahara" (1996), features soprano sax and clarinet in the same trio setting but to a considerably different and hypnotic effect.

!Sassy! has always been characterized as a lightly instrumented classic acoustic trio format featuring percussion, bass, and lead sax as the foundation of the Billy Shaw artform. This re-issue CD presents the additional tracks as consistent extensions of the original format, with an expanded Billy Shaw looking back on !Sassy! from the vantage point of the intervening Shovin' Sunshine experience.

From the die-hard aficionado to the casually curious, this underground artifact from the last decade of a past millennium is a must-have for your avant garde or free jazz collection! !Sassy! is available from CDBaby.com and Tower Records. Be sure to visit www.BillyShawSongs.com to hear more Billy Shaw Music For Modern Times.

For more information: http://www.billyshawsongs.com

Photo by: © Sandra Nesbitt

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