In 2013, Wayne Shorter said, “The word ‘jazz’ to me only means ‘I dare you.’” I love Wayne’s playing and writing without always understanding it. I got exposed to both via Miles Davis, who put Wayne’s tunes at the center of his late 1960s albums. Here’s “Orbits” from Miles Smiles.
And here’s an orchestral arrangement of the same tune recorded 36 years later on Wayne’s album Alegría. (It includes Brad Mehldau on piano.) Check out Wayne’s multiphonics at 1:55!
Wayne’s best-known composition also appears on Miles Smiles: “Footprints”, a highly abstracted twelve bar blues.
Here’s a live version from the same year.
Two years after Miles Smiles, Wayne appeared on my favorite Miles album, In A Silent Way.
Here’s a super hectic performance of Wayne’s tune “Masqualero” by Miles’ band at the Fillmore East in 1970.
Here’s Wayne before he teamed up with Miles playing “Three Blind Mice” with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.
My favorite of Wayne’s solo albums is Speak No Evil – the tune with the same name has those crazy long notes!
In my jazz days I played “Witch Hunt” and always had a good time doing so.
Wayne plays a beautifully smoky solo on Gil Evans’ arrangement of “Spoonful“.
Wayne plays ethereal soprano with McCoy Tyner and Alice Coltrane on this lovely track from McCoy’s album Extensions.
Like his frequent collaborator Herbie Hancock, Wayne was equally at home in rock and pop as he was in jazz. You can hear his soprano sax on my favorite Joni Mitchell album, Mingus.
I guess I should mention Weather Report, but I haven’t spent a lot of time with them. I looked them up on WhoSampled and found that they were sampled in a whole bunch of classic hip-hop tracks, including “Passing Me By” by the Pharcyde, “Strangers” by Portishead, “Butter” by A Tribe Called Quest, and “Pass the Hand Grenade” by Eric B and Rakim.
Go listen to Wayne!