Wayne Shorter: A Fan's Notes
A remembrance of the legendary jazz saxophonist
A jazz aficionado I am not. I’ll leave that to the more knowledgeable music writers in the genre than me.
I can’t name recording dates, label names, or colors of the sides that many jazz records were recorded on. As a fan though, I do have my share of favorite ‘all time’ jazz records, favorite rhythm sections and players, and one of those players has always been jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Since I first discovered him as a high schooler wanting to expand my musical bandwidth, I’ve been a fan and a follower of his recordings. Sadly, he passed away on March 2nd. He was 89 years old.
My introduction to Mr. Shorter was on the 1975 album Tale Spinnin' by Weather Report, after which I went backwards in jazz time to discover the incredible musicians he collaborated with.
Weather Report (co-founded by Shorter and another jazz legend Joe Zawinul) was part of my introduction to what I call my high school stoner jazz fusion introduction to the great quartet of jazz fusion bands: Weather Report, Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and The Headhunters. Once I mastered these bands, I went back in jazz history to learn deeply about Miles, Herbie, the Johns (Coltrane and McLaughlin), Chick, Tony, Billy, and others, and got completely immersed in the liberating entanglement of the collaborative connections.
Shorter had a singular sound and tone. His playing was embedded with a spiritual depth, showcased by exemplary shifts in timing, pitch and melody. As Richard Brody writes in his New Yorker article about Shorter, “his music were already someplace other than where the notes were.”
Rest in peace to one of the greats. Dig in.
Deep Tracks:
Jazz critic Nate Chinen’s NY Times obit.
A breakdown of the early part of Wayne Shorter’s career by Tom Moon.
For NPR, music critic Michelle Mercer reviewed The Miles Davis Quintet's legendary recordings at Chicago's Plugged Nickel club. The performances by Miles, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter was “a defining moment in the evolution of jazz.”