Multi-instrumentalist Leonard Shaw’s music spans the genres from blues to R & B to jazz to funk to rock, and has been plying his keyboard-saxophone-vocalizing & flute talents all over Canada and the U.S. In 1990 he played his first gig with the touring version of The Guess Who, and joined the band through the nineties and 2004 until 2023. A graduate of Grant MacEwan Music College in Edmonton , Shaw began his career in Winnipeg with the seminal rock/funk horn based Mojo and the Nighthawks in the late 60’s, then in the early 70's experimenting in Free Jazz with the Dale Russell Music Ensemble at the Ting Tea Room, before grooving up to Junior Barnes and the Cadillacs. In Toronto he played with Backstreet, and Ian Thomas, Ian Hunter, Terry Crawford and the late Dianne Heatherington. Both in Toronto and in Winnipeg on the casino’s mainstage, Shaw has been sought after as a sideman for numerous artists including Bo Diddley, Del Shannon, Ben E. King, Peter Noone, Mark Lindsey, Lesley Gore, Sue Medley, Freddie Cannon, The Marvellettes, The Crystals, The Coasters, the Drifters and Jay and the Techniques.
Shaw’s CD “Living Room” displays the wide range of styles from jazz to blues and pop that he is known for.
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Leonard’s second CD is “Barely Blue”: a broadcast recording for CBC features the Hammond B 3 organ - features two former sidemen with Lennie Breau; Ron Halldorson (guitar) and Reg Kelln; (drums) as well as Gilles Fournier (bass).
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The Lewsh Project is an all original collaboration of music written with Sandy Chochinov and Dave Garber that reaches back to his inspirational blues roots.
Around Winnipeg you may have caught Shaw rocking' out 16 years of Sunday Nights at the Kings Head Pub ; or jazz and blues in a duo or trio; or with The Ministers of Cool performing the music of Steely Dan and other great grooves.
Discography
2023 - Plein D'Amour, The Guess Who
2020 - Displaced Pieces. Sandy Chochinov & Leonard Shaw
2018 - The Future Is What It Used to Be, The Guess Who
2018 - Muchacho, Sandy Chochinov
2018 - Only of Earth, Emm Gryner
2016 - What's The Rush,Tracy K
2013 – The Lewsh Project
2013 –This Time, Leanne Goose
2012 - Cinderella Waves, Sandy Chochinov & Friends
2011 - The Ministers of Cool, Ministers of Cool
2010 - A Life, Sandy Chochinov
2009 - Stop Look & Listen, Sandy Chochinov
2009 - In Concert, The Guess Who
2009 - Take Me Away, Lisa Lester
2008 - Disco 8, Sandy Chochinov
2007 - Stay Another Night , Marianne D'Elia
2006 - Bubble Walk, Sandy Chochinov
2005 - Walkeem A Leema , Sandy Chochinov
2004 - Harlequin II
2004 - What On Earth, Sandy Chochinov
2004 - Sunday Night at the Head, All the King's Men
2003 - Livin' the Blues, Prairie Fire Project
2002 - Barely Blue, Leonard Shaw
2001 - Soar, Rosalie Rattai 2001
2001 - Life So Far, Greg Lowe
1999 - Down The Road, The Guess Who
1998 - The Spirit Lives On, The Guess Who
1996 - Living Room, Leonard Shaw
1995 - Lonely One, The Guess Who
1994 - Liberty, The Guess Who
1988 - Your Girl, Open Eyes, Backstreet
1980 - The Best of Ian Thomas , Ian Thomas
1980 - Heatherington Rocks, Dianne Heatherington
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