Evan Shaw moved to Hartland, New Brunswick as a little boy, and then moved to Toronto as a little man. In between, he doodled in notebooks, played with tape recorders and went to music school, where he showed a penchant for studying history and being overdramatic.
Shaw plays saxophone on a semi-regular basis with such talented and hard-working musicians as Geordie Haley, Ken Aldcroft, Joe Sorbara, Colin Fisher and Jean Martin. On occasion, he has had the opportunity to make music with notable and interesting people like Scott Thompson, Christine Duncan, Jeremy Strachan, Dave Clark, Lori Freedman, Justin Haynes, Myk Freedman, Ryan Driver, Nilan Perera, Michael Keith, Marcel Aucoin, Kyle Brenders, Wes Neal, Gordon Allen, Michael Herring, Nick Fraser, Dylan van der Schyff, Peggy Lee, Ron Samworth, Reuben Radding, Kenny Wheeler, Anthony Braxton, Wilbert de Joode and Nicole Mitchell.
Shaw opportunely dabbles with the superimpositon/juxtaposition of different media, most frequently with video art and improvised music. He has performed in this capacity at the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival, Distillery Jazz Festival, Soundstreams Canada's Lecture and Film Series, University of Toronto Film Festival's "Super 8 Ring Circus" and continues to collaborate with video artist June Pak.
He lives with a Hungarian wire-haired viszla named Hank.
