Wayne Shorter from Newark, the science fiction poet, the tough bluesy roller, the nerdy portrait painter; a foundational composer, an elusive improvisor, a focus, a locus, a dance, a trance, an expanse.
And what about that saxophone sound?
WS: Miles used to say, “Wayne, do you get tired of playing music that sounds like music?”
Essay about the year 1964 in the New Yorker.
Shorter might indeed be a superhero, but he’s also more practical than his reputation suggests. Like most durable artists, he takes common material and reshapes it in his own image.
Two later one-offs in the Shorter discography that deserve wider recognition are a solo tenor rhapsody on “Thanks for the Memory” from Weather Report’s 8:30 and the through-composed “Terra Incognita” for Imani Winds.
Wayne was both one of my favorite jazz composers and improvisers and I’m so glad I saw him perform twice, once with Herbie Hancock and then a few years later with the debut of his quartet with Danilo Perez, John Pattitucci and Brian Blade. It was at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC and several people walked out.