Woody Shaw

Woody Shaw, American trumpeter (died 1989)

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Born: December 24, 1944
Died: May 10, 1989
Zodiac sign: Capricorn
Birth year: 1944

About Woody Shaw

Woody Herman Shaw Jr. (December 24, 1944 – May 10, 1989) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, arranger, band leader, and educator. Shaw is widely known as one of the 20th century's most important and influential jazz trumpeters and composers. He is often credited with revolutionizing the technical and harmonic language of modern jazz trumpet playing, and is regarded by many as one of the major innovators of the instrument. When Shaw was a year old, his parents, Rosalie Pegues and Woody Shaw Sr., took their son to Newark, New Jersey,. Shaw's father was a member of the African American gospel group, The Diamond Jubilee Singers.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Woody Shaw was born

Woody Shaw was born in 1944. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1944

#1 song"Swinging on a Star" – Bing Crosby
Top movieGoing My Way
Best-selling bookStrange Fruit – Lillian Smith

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentGreen Bay Packers win NFL Championship
Top headlineD-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6
Technology milestoneHarvard Mark I computer begins operations
Defining fadBobby socks
Notable inventionKidney dialysis machine
World population2.39 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
U.S. population138.4M

1944 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Woody Shaw's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1944	2026
Gas	$0.21	$3.45/gal
Average home	$5,800	$435,000
Average income	$4,200	$67,500
Minimum wage	$0.30	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.27	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	138.4M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.