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Join The Growing Community of Funders & Supporters 

• Jason Moran, Artistic Director at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts & 2010 McArthur Fellow 
  Associate Producer, The Woody Shaw Documentary 
  
  
• Steve Coleman, Award-Winning Saxophonist & Composer & 2014 McArthur Fellow
  Associate Producer, The Woody Shaw Documentary 
  
  
• Brian Lynch, Grammy-Winning Trumpeter-Composer and 2017 Winner of the Jazz Journalists Award 
  Founding Member, The Woody Shaw Institute of Global Arts 
   
• Dr. Frederick Moten, Professor of English, UC Berkeley. Author of 'In The Break: The Aesthetics Of The Black Radical Tradition'
  Founding Member, The Woody Shaw Institute of Global Arts 
• Eothen "Egon" Alapatt, Director of the J Dilla Estate, Founder of Now Again Records
  Advocate, The Woody Shaw Documentary 

"This album film is dedicated to the youth who will benefit mankind. To the youth who are constantly aware of the turmoil in which the world is, and who are trying to right all these wrongs, whether in music, or in speech, or in any other way of positive work. "  

—Woody Shaw, Blackstone Legacy (1970)

So WHY Should I Support This Project?! 

This project is the culmination of over 15 years of familial and historical work conducted by Shaw's son, Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw, III, in an effort to keep his father's musical legacy and memory alive. By supporting this project, you will be helping to complete the Woody Shaw documentary, to launch The Woody Shaw Institute of Global Arts, and to ensure that the story of one of the most influential and innovative musicians of the 20th century finally gets told.

And WHY Do You Need These Funds?!

These funds will help complete all aspects of production, administration, editing, and distribution and all tax and legal filings associated with the launch of The Woody Shaw Institute of Global Arts. In addition, these funds will also help digitize countless articles of Woody Shaw's written and recorded music and to release long-awaited, previously unreleased materials from his archive — for public dissemination for years to come. 

These funds are needed to cover production expenses, to purchase necessary recording equipment, to pay for traveling, transportation and ancillary expenses, to pay for staff, assistants, cameramen, editors and others. The most urgent requirement at this time is to interview as many of Shaw's remaining peers as possible while they are still living, and this will require a great deal of international travel. These funds will thus help cover such remaining costs and ensure that this project is completed in a timely fashion.

And WHAT Do I Get?!

When you support this project, you will gain access to a plethora of previously unreleased material. While many Shaw fans have become sophisticated collectors and archivists in their own right, what has not been offered in the past is a way to contribute directly and legitimately to the ongoing preservation of Woody Shaw's legacy. Through this project, Shaw fans have the rare opportunity of being part of a historical initiative that is independent and unaffiliated with any academic or centralized cultural institution, and which is administered exclusively under the care and oversight of Woody Shaw's family. As such, supporters can take pride in knowing that they have participated directly — and authentically — in the preservation and advancement of Woody Shaw's legacy.

Woody Shaw III is a producer, cultural curator, archivist, and the administrative and artistic director of the legacies of his late father, trumpet innovator and composer Woody Shaw (1944-1989), and his step-father, legendary tenor saxophonist and Academy Award nominated actor Dexter Gordon (1923-1990). He is also founder of MOONTRANE MEDIA GROUP, LLC — a digital media, creative production, and arts management consulting company in New York City.

Woody III has worked across numerous disciplines over the years to preserve and extend the works of his cultural and artistic heritage including estate management, intellectual property law, archival research and documentation, digitization, licensing, copyright, publishing, event production, musical and artistic direction, curation, web and graphic design, video production, project direction, strategic planning, and digital and social media. 

He has also worked as a digital media consultant to small businesses, artists, estates, and non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations Department of Public Information. He is Founder of Woody Shaw Legacy LLC, Dex Music LLC, and co-founder and CEO of The Dexter Gordon Society. Woody III also administers the associated websites WOODYSHAW.COM and DEXTERGORDON.COM. 

 As producer and author of numerous articles and essays on the legacy of his musical forefathers, Woody Shaw III has worked as music producer and writer for Mosaic Records, Sony Music Entertainment, High Note Records, Pop Market, and Resonance Records. He has produced musical events for the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the Jazz Standard, and NPR Music. 

Woody is also published in the University of Pittsburgh’s International Jazz Archive Journal, the International Trumpet Guild Journal, Jazz Japan magazine and has spoken publicly at Harvard University, Columbus State University, and BMCC and has appeared on such radio networks as WBGO, NPR, 90.1 Rochester, WBAI, Sirius XM Radio and others. As drummer, Woody has performed throughout New York City, in Europe, and in Asia working with percussionist Joe Chambers’ Urban Grooves Ensemble, and with saxophonists Rene McLean (son of jazz legend Jackie McLean), Hamiet Bluiett and others. 

Woody III received his M.A. in Arts Administration from Columbia University with concentrations in business and arts law in 2015. He is a recipient of the William Randolph Hearst Fellowship, the Helen E. Richards Scholarship, the Teachers College Scholarship, and has received support from the Michael Eisner Educational Fund. He has professional certification in Intellectual property law from New York University and in business from Columbia University. 

In 2014, Woody III was awarded the prestigious Hutchins Fellowship by the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. During this time he focused on the consolidation of over 15 years’ worth of historical research for the launch of a forthcoming book, documentary, and educational institute (The Woody Shaw Institute) to preserve, document, and extend the innovative musical legacy of his late father, legendary trumpet master and composer Woody Shaw, Jr. (1944-1989). 

Woody III received his B.A. in Ethnomusicology at Hobart College in 2001, during which time he studied music, religion, and philosophy in India, Japan, and Vietnam. He received his B.F.A in Jazz Performance from New School University in 2004. He attended the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s graduate program in 2006-2007, serving as the Associate Instructor (T.A.) for department chair Dr. David N. Baker. 

AWARDS 

• Harvard University, Hutchins Fellowship, W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute (2014-2016) 
• Columbia University, William Randolph Hearst Fellowship (2013) 
• Columbia University, Helen E. Richards Scholarship (2013) 
• Columbia University, Michael Eisner Educational Fund (2012) 
• Columbia University, Teachers College Scholarship (2012) 
• Hobart College, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Alumni Award (2004) 
• Hobart College, Tanaka Foundation Award, Technos International College in Japan (2000) 

 PUBLICATIONS & PRODUCTIONS 

• Woody Shaw & Louis Hayes: The Tour, Vol. 2 (Writer & CD Producer) | High Note Records (2017)  
• Woody Shaw & Louis Hayes: The Tour, Vol. 1 (Writer & CD Producer) | High Note Records (2016) 
• Larry Young in Paris: The ORTF Recordings (Writer & Associate CD Producer) | Resonance Records (2015)
• Woody Shaw: The Complete Muse Sessions (7 CDs) (Writer & CD Producer) | Mosaic Records (2013)
• Woody Plays Woody (Writer, CD Producer) | CD Reissue | High Note Records (2013) 
• Woody Shaw: The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (6 CDs) (Writer, CD Producer, Graphic Designer, Art Director, Project Director) | Sony Music Entertainment (2012) 
• Dexter Gordon: The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (6 CDs) (Graphic Designer, Art Director, Project Director) | Sony Music Entertainment (2012) Who is Woody Shaw? (Writer) | International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 36 (2012) 
• Memories of My Fathers (on Dexter Gordon and Woody Shaw) (Writer) (Japanese) | Jazz Japan (2012) 
• Woody ‘n’ Dex III ("The Woody Shaw III interview") (Writer) | Ottawa Citizen (2012) 
• Woody Shaw: Eight Jazz Classic Originals (Writer) | Aebersold Books (2009) 
• UNITY: The Inseparability of Life and Music – A Holistic View of Woody Shaw The International Jazz Archives Journal, Vol. III | University of Pittsburgh (Writer) (2010) 
• Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard (Writer & Producer) | Sony Music (2005) 

TALKS & PRESENTATIONS 

•  Harvard University, Woody Shaw and The Quest for Unity, Barker Center, Cambridge, MA (2015) 
• NJPAC, Jazz On A Summer’s Day, film panel discussion with Nelson George, Newark, NJ (2014) 
• Harvard University, Jazz, Freedom, and Culture, Class 179, Cambridge, MA (2013) 
• International Trumpet Guild Conference, presentation, Columbus State Univ., Columbus, GA 
• (2013) 
• Laurinburg Institute, commencement speech on Shaw family history, Laurinburg, NC (2012) 
• Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Scenes Through the Cinema Lens, panel, BMCC, New York (2011)
• NY Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Remembering Woody Shaw, panel, BMCC, New York, NY (2010)

MEDIA WBGO 

• Jazz 88.3 FM, Afternoon Jazz with Michael Borne (2013) 
• WCOM 103.5 FM, Sunday Night Jazz with Larry Reni Thomas (2012 and 2013) 
• WBAI NY 99.5 FM, Suga’ In My Bowl with Joyce Jones (2012 and 2013) 
• 90.1 FM, Jazz Rochester with Derrick Lucas (2010) 
• Sirius XM Radio, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Blue Note Hour, Michael Cuscuna, Bruce Lundvall (2010) 
• WLIU 88.3 (2010) FM, NPR The Song is You with Bonnie Grice (2009)