Wayne Shorter
A jazz superhero in 10 albums. Rest in power.
KNOWN AS ‘Mr Weird’ in high school, and as ‘Mr Gone’ amongst his peers, Wayne Shorter was a jazz musician of enigmatic individuality, his style gradually moving from a ner vy, overly-detailed soprano sax squall heavily in thrall to John Coltrane to something more oblique, elliptical, melancholic, and enchanting. Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1933, he grew up a quiet, introspective child, loving Mar vel comics and science fiction, both of which would later influence and infuse his work. After discovering music in his late teens with his elder brother Alan, Shorter moved from clarinet to tenor sax before taking a music education course at New York University, where his evenings were spent checking out Lester Young and Charlie Parker, but also the ‘cool school’ likes of Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. Then after two years in the US army, Shorter was recruited into Maynard Ferguson’s big band along with future collaborator Joe Zawinul, before joining Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1959, eventually becoming their musical director and infusing Blakey’s straight-ahead sound with a curious nocturnal intensity.
The run of Blue Note albums Shorter recorded between 1964’s Night Dreamer and 1974’s Moto Grosso Feio (actually recorded in 1970) could easily occupy all of the 10 slots in this How To Buy, being as they are some of the most daring, experimental yet lyrically beautiful sides of music recorded for that incredible label during its heyday. The challenge here has been to capture the breadth and scope of Shorter’s graceful genius beyond that astonishing decade, taking in his significant contributions to Blakey’s Jazz Messengers but also to Miles Davis, with whom he played between 1965 and 1967, bringing an abstract, roiling expressionism to Davis’s post-bop futurism. Then there is his work with Joe Zawinul and Miroslav Vitous in ’70s fusion pioneers Weather Report and his often-overlooked post-Blue Note releases, especially those recorded between 1980 and his death. It can’t hope to cover everything, and it’s bound to overlook somebody’s favourite Shorter recording, but hopefully it will provide a jumping off point for exploring the works of one of the most musically beguiling jazz composers, who passed on March 2.
“One of the most musically beguiling jazz composers.”