Sahib Shihab – Sahib Shihab and The Danish Radio Jazz Group (Sam Records Vinyl LP)

180-gram vinyl

Sahib Shihab and The Danish Radio Jazz Group

Sahib Shihab (Edmund Gregory) played with many of jazz’s finest musicians. Shortly after he became
one of the first jazz players to change their names due to an Islamic conversion, he joined Thelonious
Monk for his Blue Note sessions. He also played with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Pettiforn and
Quincy Jones. A unique musician, he was at home in every musical style, from the experimentalism of
Thelonious Monk to the more direct hard bop of Art Blakey. Sahib Shihab’s distinctive sound was rooted
in his modernist compositions and arrangements, complemented by an intense, soulful playing style.

In 1959 he toured Europe with Quincy Jones after getting fed up with racial politics in USA and
ultimately settled in Scandinavia. He worked for Copenhagen Polytechnic and wrote scores for television,
cinema and theatre. He remained there until 1973. During this period, he recorded several albums as
leader for European labels such as Vogue, Storyville and Futura.

In 1961 he joined The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band and remained a key figure in the band for
the 12 years it ran. He married a Danish lady and raised a family in Europe, although he remained a
conscious African-American still sensitive to racial issues.

This record, on the Danish Oktav label, his second as a leader and also his rarest, is a true masterpiece!