Encounters

Dr. George Shaw’s website defines music as: “The manipulation of sound and silence in the context of formal elements for the purpose of expressing emotional content.” In the early 1980s, the trumpeter/flugelhorn player began dipping into early synthesizers, computers, and MIDI, setting it all up in his living room. Encounters, his 1986 solo album, pits his horn against a rubbery backdrop of synthesizers and drum machines, with dashes of what he calls “computer-controlled synthesis.” He’s downright maudlin on the well-worn tunes “That’s What Friends Are For” and “When a Man Loves a Woman,” but smooth and spry on numbers like “Phone Home” and “6295 Sw Fisher.”