The history books like to have us believe that, until the arrival of Wynton Marsalis and co. in the early 1980s, acoustic jazz was all but a stretcher case. Not so. In fact, a fair few years before Wynton got his Blakey-break, there were positive signs that straightahead was alive, well and kicking ass as strongly as ever. Take Dexter Gordon's triumphant ‘homecoming’ or the series of classy quintets trumpeter Woody Shaw was leading in the late 1970s, bands which bypassed much of the trappings of jazz-rock and fusion for a policy upkeeping the best of what you might call the ‘Blue Note’ tradition. This newly released live set, just nudging into the 1980s, is a prime example. The leader is in devastating form. Just hear the solo that he unfurls on the opening ‘Invitation’, which moves with stately grace but no little fire over what must surely be the perfect tempo for this overdone warhorse. His band are top-hole too, the sadly underappreciated Jefferson another of those 1970s saxophonists operating in the wake of Trane (think Junior Cook and George Coleman) who sensibly took the best from both hard and post-bop. On a set of consistent invention, it's hard to single out a highlight, but possibly Shaw's take on Brubeck's ‘In Your Own Sweet Way’ comes closest to a ‘best’ from a set full of them. A bonus version of ‘We'll Be Together Again’, taped in Austria a year later with a young Mulgrew Miller, adds a lovely if bittersweet footnote. Eight years later Shaw was dead. Only in his middle-forties, what would he have gone on to do given more time? Nobody can say, but sets like this can only support his place within the great trumpet pantheon. Beautifully recorded, intelligently annotated and well programmed, this comes highly recommended.