Flight 2201 by George Shaw & Century

After spending the bulk of the ’70s as a hired gun for David Ruffin, Marvin Gaye, and The Temptations, George Shaw got a call from Palo Alto’s TBA label. The fledgling smooth jazz imprint was desperate to fill the void left by their golden child George Howard, who had just jumped ship for MCA Records.

Shaw’s first offering was 1985’s Flight 2201, an all-star affair featuring fellow TBAers Frank Potenza on guitar, Damon Rentie on sax, and Stanlet smith on drums. Jazz Crusader Wilton Felder plucked the bass and top-flight arranger Benjamin Wright sweetened the entire affair up with his glimmering keys work. The result is more Minneapolis synth funk than Palo Alto dentist jazz. “I never considered what we did smooth jazz,” Shaw reflected. “We were just playing songs we liked and everyone took solos here and there ‘cause they were all great players and could.”

A visit to the Numero office makes it very clear that ‘the stacks’ is a literal description of our process: we accumulate stacks of records, master tapes, photos, flyers, and old newspapers while assembling a project. From The Stacks is our way of illuminating the experience: the selections here are presented without curation. While we’re digging for gold, these are the lesser minerals we find.