Please Don't Leave Me

Recorded in Cologne, Germany on May 8 and 9, 1964, with a small group drawn from the Clarke-Boland Big Band: Ake Persson on trombone, Francy Boland on piano, Jimmy Woode on bass, Kenny Clarke on drums, and Joe Harris on percussion, engineered by Wolfgang Hirschmann. The track appeared on Summer Dawn, one of the few albums Shihab led during his European residence, showcasing his alto saxophone alongside the rhythm section of the Clarke-Boland axis and reaching US listeners through the Chess jazz subsidiary Argo Records. Summer Dawn became a prized rarity among crate diggers and rare groove collectors, and 'Please Don't Leave Me' has been sampled by hip-hop producers, cementing Shihab's posthumous reputation as an overlooked European jazz gem; the album was reissued on vinyl in 2008.