Eddie Shaw

Eddie Shaw (born March 20, 1937, Stringtown, Mississippi), is an African-American Chicago blues tenor saxophonist.

In his teenage years, Shaw played tenor saxophone with local blues musicians such as Little Milton and Willie Love.  At the age of 14, he was involved in a jam session in Greenville, Mississippi, with Ike Turner's band. At a gig in Itta Bena, Mississippi, when the then 20-year-old Shaw performed, Muddy Waters invited him to join his Chicago-based band.

Shaw more or less divided the tenor saxophone duties with A.C. Reed.  In 1972, he joined Howlin' Wolf, leading his band, the Wolf Gang, and writing half the songs on "The Back Door Wolf" (1973). After the singer died in 1976, he took over the band and its residency at the 1815 Club, renamed "Eddie's Place".  Shaw led the gang on "Living Chicago Blues Vol. 1" and "Have Blues - Will Travel" (1980), and recorded albums in different companies for Isabel Records, Rooster Blues, and Wolf Records.

By the late 1970s, Shaw's recording career started, with an appearance on Alligator Records' "Living Chicago Blues anthologies" (1978), his LPs for Evidence and Rooster Blues, and more recent discs for Rooster Blues (In the Land of the Crossroads) and Wolf (Home Alone).

Shaw's many contributions to the blues include arranging tracks for  "The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions" (which featured Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Ringo Starr, and others) and performing with a list of blues notables that included Hound Dog Taylor, Freddie King, Otis Rush and Magic Sam (on his Black Magic album).

In 2013 and 2014, Shaw won the Blues Music Award in the "Instrumentalist - Horn" category.

One of his sons, Eddie "Vaan" Shaw Jr. (born 1955), joined the Wolf Gang playing on some of his father's recordings.  A disciple of Wolf's protégé, Hubert Sumlin, he has recorded two albums of his own - "Morning Rain" and "The Trail of Tears".

Another son, the husky Stan Shaw (born 1952), is a Hollywood, California-based character actor.

(Eddie Shaw at 13th annual Poconos Blues Festival 2004)