Guest post by Nathan Arizona
From Miles to the Multiverse. That’s the trajectory Wayne Shorter took as he established himself over a 67-year career as what the New Yorker called “the world’s greatest living jazz composer” and as maybe the finest saxophone player since the 1960s.
Shorter, who died last week at 89, made his first big splash as a member of Miles Davis’ famed Second Great Quintet, which also included Herbie Hancock on keyboards. The First Great Quintet — like the second, among the most important groups ever in jazz —- had featured sax player John Coltrane, with whom Shorter practiced early in his career. The young Shorter directed the Second Quintet about as much as Davis did. Miles said as much.
Here’s a live Second Quintet performance of Shorter’s “Footprints,” one of his best known tunes. It first appeared on the Davis album “Miles Smiles” and then on Shorter’s own “Adam’s Apple.” It could get a little edgy, like much of his and the group’s work.
“Adam’s Apple” was just one of the now-classic post-bop/hard-bop albums Shorter made with his own band during his tenure with Davis from 1964 to 1970. He said he didn’t rehearse his bands because “how do you rehearse the future?”
Here’s the title track from the 1966 Shorter album “Speak No Evil.”
Davis’ quintet with Shorter helped pioneer the electric jazz-rock fusion sound of the 1970s. Shorter then co-founded the most respected fusion band, Weather Report, with Joe Zawinul. They had played a very different kind of jazz with Maynard Ferguson early in their careers. Shorter led another highly acclaimed, non-fusion, group in the 2000s.
Some mellow fusion from Weather Report, Jaco Pastorius on bass:
https://youtu.be/n4lSPzK5u8E
Shorter’s last studio album,” Emanon,” was based on a graphic novel he wrote in which the philosopher hero battles opponents throughout the countless parallel universes that some scientists say are out there. Shorter was a reader and fledgling writer of comics and science-fiction as a teen-ager and never lost interest. He might be playing somewhere in this Multiverse today.
At a time when most of the general public couldn’t name a dozen jazz musicians, Shorter might be best known by the company he kept. Coltrane, Davis and Hancock from jazz, but also pop-rock stars he collaborated with. Shorter played the famous sax solo on Steely Dan’s “Aja,” on Joni Mitchell’s jazzy mid-period albums and on tracks by The Rolling Stones and Don Henley.
Oh, and he also wrote an opera.