Beginnings / Chicago  (1968-'69)

Phil Maggini and Ron Berry signed on to play bass and guitar in a backup band for a mutual friend. Arriving at the gig they discovered it was to be a double bill. The bass player in that other group was Greg Stinson. About a year later Phil offered to help out a friend who was setting up equipment for a band he'd never heard called 'Fat Water'. When he got to the gig he was surprised to find Greg Stinson in the band, but this time playing guitar. Greg and singer Freddy Fox were standouts, and a connection was made. Soon after, Phil was hired by bluesman Cash McCall to play bass on a string of sessions at blues Mecca 'Chess Records', working with Willy Dixon and Howlin' Wolf among others. It was around this time that he was approached by Stinson and Fox to start a blues band of their own. Phil's friend and session mate Ron Berry was enlisted along with drummer Tommy Glubber.They called it 'The Yazoo Shuffle Band'.

' Time Glide ‘ / ' Linear Dance '

Earliest Shadowfax Demos / Crete,Illinois  (1972-'75)

In a rural area forty miles south of the city of Chicago, Shadowfax rented a rambling old farmhouse, and built 'Big Burn Studio' in the basement. The band consisted of  Phil Maggini (bass,vocal), Chuck Greenberg (woodwinds,lyricon), Greg Stinson (guitars, sitar, vocal), Doug Maluchnik (keyboards), and Stu Nevitt (drums,pecussion). There, with the help of friend and recording engineer Warren Flaschen, they wrote and recorded their earliest music. These two songs created interest in the band and eventually led to the group signing their first recording contract with Passport Records. What followed was a trip to the East Coast and the recording of 'Watercourse Way' in 1976, on which 'Linear Dance was re-cut ( the demo here smokes the album version ).From these early Prog-rock beginnings the band began to find their musical direction.

' Shape Of A Word ’ /  Live Version  / Chicago  (1978)

' Watercourse Way '  Album  (1976)

'Shape' was chosen to represent the first record, but rather than posting the album version, a live track recorded a couple of years later as a quartet shows how the band has taken to opening up and improvising. By the time this performance took place, Shadowfax had been dropped by Passport Records, Doug had left the band and Phil,Greg,Chuck,and Stu were forging ahead. Years later in the mid '80s, Chuck would arrange to buy back the masters of 'Watercourse Way' for re-release on Windham Hill Records. A very smart move.

Note to self...whenever possible, always own your work and protect your history.

' Arc Force ’ / ’A Woman Most Precious ' / ' Head On Fire '

The Quartet Demos / Chicago (1977-'79)

These songs were written and recorded in Chicago during the post-Passport record deal days, and were used in the effort towards finding a new label to record for. But in the height of the Disco era, they went unappreciated. Except in the clubs Shadowfax played around the city, where a new music community was thriving. This period of the bands history is one of intense creativity and experimentation. Band friend Bob Long plays keys on ‘Woman’.

‘ Improvisation '

' Punkjaz '

Shadowfax Live At Wise Fools Pub  /  Chicago  (1978)

Shadowfax's Chicago roots are revealed in this early improv.
After the limited success of their first release on Passport Records,
'Watercourse Way" (1976), and the departure of keyboard player
Doug Maluchnik, Shadowfax continued to record and play around
Chicago for the next three years as a quartet. This proved to be
one of the most musically adventurous periods of the bands
23 year history, and one which has gone largely unheard until now

' Elevator Racing '  /  ' Sensory Overload ' 

The Eko Eko  Band Demos  /  Los Angeles  (1980)

In 1979, Shadowfax went on hiatus. Phil Maggini, Chuck Greenberg, and former Shadowfax manager/recording engineer Warren Flaschen moved to Los Angeles for a change of scenery. After the obligatory " Welcome to LA ! " partying phase had burned out, the question of what to do instead was inevedable. How to do some music, and generate income, without sacrificing the fun factor in the process. A hanger at Santa Monica Airport was rented as a rehearsal room, Chicago friend and drummer Mick Lehockey, along with guitarist Zeek Zerngable were enlisted, and 'Eko Eko' was born. The demo was recorded with the help of friend/engineer Ben Lesko, and efforts to secure club gigs around LA began. The process was halted when Chuck got an offer to record as a solo artist for the Windham Hill Label, which was used as an opportunity to re-form Shadowfax on the West Coast. The Eko Eko demo survives as a curious artifact of this transitional period.

' Africas On Fire ‘ / ' Souls Breakthrough ' / ' Side Effects ' / 'Ariki '

' Resident Alien '  Sessions  /  Hollywood , Ca.  (1981-'82)

While working toward the completion of their first Windham Hill release, the four reunited members of Shadowfax had the opportunity to play on Robit Hairman's Record, 'Resident Alien'. Robit, a South African born poet/writer/musician, and Anti-Apartheid activist, figured largely in the series of events leading up to Chucks deal offer from Windham Hill, that was key to Shadowfax reforming.

 While in London several years earlier, Robit met then street musician Alex de Grassi playing guitar in a subway station. He kept in contact with Alex over the years. When in 1980 a mutual friend introduced Robit to Phil and Chuck, they were forming the 'Eko Eko' band, and a couple of Robit's songs were added to the bands set. Robit encouraged Alex di Grassi to meet Chuck and the two collaborated on one of Alex's songs that he was recording for his cousin Will Ackerman's record label, 'Windham Hill'. When Will heard Chuck, he offered him his own deal. Chuck convinced Will to allow Shadowfax to become the first 'band' on the otherwise solo artist roster. 'Ariki' is one of Greg's songs from that first Windham Hill release. The 'Shadowfax' version is an instrumental,on which band friend Emil Richards helps to create a percussive landscape for the track. Here we have an ethereal vocal treatment of the song by Robit. The intro to 'Africa' was conceived and performed by Adam Rudolph.

' Dust My Blues ' 

The Cash McCall Blues Band   (Cash-O-Fax)

Live at The Palomino  /  Los Angeles  (1982)

Greg and Stewart arrived in Los Angeles, and work commenced on the first recording for 'Windham Hill Records'. While mid-session the group was asked by old Chicago friend Cash McCall to back him up on some blues tracks. The band was squeezed into a tiny studio in Pasadena at the time to record their initial offering for the label, and under considerable time and money constraints. But in spite of it all, the Shadowfax session screeched to a halt, and for a time, the studio was musically transformed into  the 'Checkerboard Lounge', on Chicago's South Side. When soon after, an opportunity to play Cash's tracks live presented itself, they couldn't resist. 'Dust My Blues' is a song from that night. It's probably no accident that this chronology is book ended by blues sessions.

 Soon after this gig. Shadowfax found themselves loading equipment and suitcases into the back of a U-Haul trailer hitched to a camper, and heading out on their first tour in support of their new record. It may have signaled the end of one era, but quite a new journey lay ahead.