Wayne Shorter (born August 25 1933) is an American jazz composer and saxophonist, commonly regarded as one of the more important American jazz sax players and composers since the 1960s.

Shorter has recorded dozens of albums as a leader, and appeared on dozens more with others including Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the late 1950s, Miles Davis second great quintet in the 1960s and the jazz-rock fusion band Weather Report, which Shorter co-led in the 1970s. Many of his compositions have become standards.

Early life and career

Shorter was born in Newark, New Jersey, and attended Newark Arts High School. He loved music, being encouraged by his father to take up the saxophone as a teenager (his brother Alan became a trumpeter). After graduating from New York University in 1956 Shorter spent two years in the U.S. Army, during which time he played briefly with Horace Silver. After his discharge from the army he played with Maynard Ferguson.It was in his youth that Shorter was given the nickname Mr.Gone later an album title for Weather Reporthttp://www.bigtakeover.com/reviews/weather-report-forecast-tomorrow-columbia-legacy

In 1959 Shorter joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He stayed with Blakey for five years, and eventually became musical director for the group.

With Miles Davis (1964-70)

In 1964, Miles Davis persuaded Shorter to leave Blakey and join the Miles Davis Quintet alongside Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Davis had been searching for a saxophonist to replace John Coltrane for some time, and the new quintet is considered by many to have been Davis's strongest working group. Shorter composed extensively for Davis ("Prince of Darkness", "ESP", "Footprints", "Sanctuary", and many others; on some albums he provided half of the compositions), typically hard-bop workouts with spaced-out long melody lines above the beat.

Herbie Hancock had this to say of Shorter's tenure in the group: "The master writer to me, in that group, was Wayne Shorter. He still is a master. Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didn't get changed." Davis said: "Wayne is a real composer. He writes scores, write the parts for everybody just as he wants them to sound. He also brought in a kind of curiosity about working with musical rules. If they didn't work, then he broke them, but with musical sense; he understood that freedom in music was the ability to know the rules in order to bend them to your own satisfaction and taste."

Shorter remained in Davis's band after the breakup of the quintet in 1968, playing on early jazz fusion recordings including In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew (both 1969). His last live dates and studio recordings with Davis were in 1970.

Until 1968 he played tenor saxophone exclusively. The final album on which he played tenor in the regular sequence of Davis albums was Filles de Kilimanjaro. In 1969 he played the soprano saxophone on the Davis album In a Silent Way and on his own Super Nova (recorded with then-current Davis sidemen Chick Corea and John McLaughlin). In live Davis recordings from summer 1969 to early spring 1970 he played both saxophones. By the early 1970s, however, he chiefly played soprano saxophone.

.. and recording for Blue Note

Simultaneous with his time in the Miles Davis quintet, Shorter recorded several albums for Blue Note Records, featuring almost exclusively his own compositions, with a variety of line-ups, quartets and larger groups including Blue Note favourites such as Freddie Hubbard. His first Blue Note album (of nine in total) was Night Dreamer recorded at Rudy Van Gelders studio in 1964 with Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman and Elvin Jones.

JuJu and Speak No Evil are two more well known recordings from this era. Shorter's compositions on these albums are notable for their use of:

• pentatonic melodies harmonised with pedal points and complex harmonic relationships;
• structured solos that reflect the composition's melody as much as its harmony;
• long rests as an integral part of the music, in contrast with other, more effusive, players of the time such as John Coltrane. Indeed the rhythm section on Night Dreamer included Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner of Coltrane's classic quartet that had recorded A Love Supreme the previous year.

The later album The All-Seeing Eye was a free-jazz workout with a larger group, while Adam's Apple of 1966 was back to carefully constructed melodies by Shorter leading a quartet. Then a sextet again in the following year for Schizophrenia with his Miles Davis band mates Hancock and Carter plus trombonist Curtis Fuller, alto saxophonist/flautist James Spaulding and strong rhythms by drummer Joe Chambers. These albums have recently been remastered by Rudy Van Gelder.

Shorter also recorded occasionally as a sideman (again, mainly for Blue Note) with Donald Byrd, McCoy Tyner, Grachan Moncur III, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, and bandmates Hancock and Williams.

Weather Report period, 1970 to 1986

Following the release of his Odyssey Of Iska album in 1970, Shorter along with keyboardist Joe Zawinul (also a veteran of the Miles Davis group) formed the fusion group Weather Report. The other original members were bassist Miroslav Vitous, percussionist Airto Moreira, and drummer Alphonse Mouzon. After Vitous' departure in 1973 Shorter and Zawinul co-led the group until the band's break up in late 1985. A great variety of excellent musicians that would make up Weather Report alumni over the years (most notably the revolutionary bassist Jaco Pastorius) would demonstrate that the band could still produce great music despite changes in personnel.

.. and his own recordings in this period

Shorter also recorded critically acclaimed albums as leader, notably Native Dancer, which featured his Miles Davis band-mate Herbie Hancock and Brazilian composer and vocalist Milton Nascimento. Shorter was to work with both of these musicians again later. He also contributed to several albums by Joni Mitchell. On the title track of Steely Dan's 1978 album Aja, he played a solo the critic who wrote the album's liner notes called "suitable for framing" (meaning 'beautiful' rather than 'wooden').

Concurrently, in the late 1970s and the early 1980s he toured in the V.S.O.P. quintet. This group was a revival of the 1960s Miles Davis quintet, except that Freddie Hubbard filled the trumpet chair instead of Miles.

For further discussion of V.S.O.P. please see Herbie Hancock.

Performing on soprano and tenor saxophone, Shorter was also cast as a 1950s jazz musician in Bertrand Tavernier's 1986 film Round Midnight.

Recent career

After leaving Weather Report, Shorter continued to record and lead groups in jazz fusion styles, including touring in 1988 with guitarist Carlos Santana. He has also maintained an occasional working relationship with Herbie Hancock, including a tribute album recorded shortly after Davis's death with Hancock, Carter, Williams and Wallace Roney. He continued to appear on Joni Mitchell's records in the 1990s.

In 1995 Shorter released the album High Life, his first solo recording for seven years. It was also Shorter's debut as a leader for Verve Records. Shorter composed all the compositions on the album and co-produced it with the bassist Marcus Miller. High Life received the Grammy Award for best Contemporary Jazz Album in 1997.

Shorter would work with Hancock once again in 1997, on the much acclaimed and heralded album 1+1. The song Aung San Suu Kyi(named for the Burmese pro-democracy activist) won both Hancock and Shorter a Grammy award.

The Quartet

Shorter formed his current band in 2000, the first permanent acoustic group under his leadership, a quartet with young musicians, pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade, playing his own complex compositions, many of them reworkings of tunes from his substantial portfolio going back to the 1960s. Two albums of live recordings featuring this quartet have been released (Footprints Live (2002) and Beyond the Sound Barrier (2005)). The quartet has received great acclaim from fans and critics, especially for the strength of Shorter's tenor saxophone playing. The Shorter biography Footprints by journalist Michelle Mercer contains an insight into the working life of these musicians as well as insight into Shorter's life, thoughts and Buddhist beliefs. Beyond the Sound Barrier received the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album.

Shorter's 2003 album Alegria (his first studio album for ten years, since High Life) received the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album; it features the quartet with a host of other musicians, including pianist Brad Mehldau, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and former Weather Report percussionist Alex Acuña. Shorter's compositions, some new some reworked from his Miles Davis period, feature the complex Latin rhythms that Shorter specialised in during his Weather Report days.

Personal and family life

Shorter's wife Ana Maria and their niece Dalila were both killed on TWA Flight 800 in 1996, and he married Carolina Dos Santos, a close friend of Ana Maria, in 1999. Shorter is a Nichiren Buddhist and a member of Soka Gakkai.

Discography

See also Wayne Shorter albums

As leader

• 1959 Introducing Wayne Shorter
• 1960 Second Genesis
• 1962 Wayning Moments
• 1964 Night Dreamer - Blue Note Records
• 1964 JuJu - Blue Note Records
• 1965 Speak No Evil - Blue Note Records

• 1965 The Soothsayer - Blue Note Records
• 1965 Et Cetera - Blue Note Records

these two were not released until later

• 1965 The All Seeing Eye - Blue Note records
• 1966 Adam's Apple - Blue Note records
• 1967 Schizophrenia - Blue Note Records
• 1969 Super Nova
• 1970 Moto Grosso Feio
• 1970 Odyssey of Iska
• 1974 Native Dancer with Milton Nascimento
• 1985 Atlantis
• 1986 Phantom Navigator
• 1988 Joy Ryder
• 1988 Carlos Santana and Wayne Shorter - Live At the Montreux Jazz Festival 1988 (Carlos Santana) (released 2007)
• 1995 High Life
• 2002 Footprints Live
• 2003 Alegría the Footprints group augmented
• 2005 Beyond the Sound Barrier live, with the Footprints group

With Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers

• 1959 Africaine
• 1960 A Night in Tunisia
• 1960 Like Someone in Love
• 1960 Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World
• 1960 Roots & Herbs
• 1960 The Big Beat
• 1961 A Day With Art Blakey
• 1961 Impulse!!! Art Blakey!!! Jazz Messengers!!!
• 1961 Buhaina's Delight
• 1961 Mosaic
• 1961 The Freedom Rider
• 1961 The Witch Doctor
• 1961 Tokyo 1961
• 1962 Caravan
• 1962 Three Blind Mice, Volume 1
• 1962 Three Blind Mice, Volume 2
• 1963 Ugetsu
• 1964 Free for All
• 1964 Indestructible

With other Blue Note artists

• 1961 Free Form (Donald Byrd)
• 1962 Here to Stay (Freddie Hubbard)
• 1962 Ready for Freddie (Freddie Hubbard)
• 1963The Body and the Soul (Freddie Hubbard)
• 1964 Search for the New Land (Lee Morgan)
• 1964 Some Other Stuff (Grachan Moncur III)
• 1965 The Gigolo (Lee Morgan)
• 1965 Spring (Tony Williams)
• 1966 Delightfulee (Lee Morgan)
• 1967 Standards (Lee Morgan)
• 1967 Sweet Slumber (Lou Donaldson)
• 1967 The Procrastinator (Lee Morgan)
• 1968 Expansions (McCoy Tyner)
• 1970 Extensions (McCoy Tyner)

With Miles Davis

• 1964 Miles In Berlin
• 1965 E.S.P.
• 1965 Live at the Plugged Nickel
• 1966 Miles Smiles
• 1967 Sorcerer
• 1967 Nefertiti
• 1968 Miles in the Sky
• 1968 Filles de Kilimanjaro
• 1969 In A Silent Way
• 1969 1969Miles: Festiva de Juan Pins Japan release only
• 1969 Bitches Brew
• 1970 It's About that Time
• 1974 Big Fun (1969-1972 recordings)
• 1976 Water Babies (1967-1968 recordings)
• 1979 Circle in the Round (1955-1970 recordings)
• 1980 Directions (1960-1970 recordings)

With Weather Report

• 1971 Weather Report
• 1972 I Sing the Body Electric
• 1972 Live in Tokyo
• 1973 Sweetnighter
• 1974 Mysterious Traveller
• 1975 Black Market
• 1975 Tale Spinnin'
• 1977 Heavy Weather
• 1978 Mr. Gone
• 1979 30
• 1980 Night Passage
• 1982 Weather Report
• 1983 Procession
• 1983 Domino Theory
• 1984 Sportin' Life
• 1985 This is This!

With others

• 1976 Jaco Pastorius (Jaco Pastorius)
• 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (Joni Mitchell)
• 1977 Aja (Steely Dan)
• 1978 Mingus (Joni Mitchell)
• 1980 The Swing of Delight (Carlos Santana)
• 1981 Word of Mouth (Jaco Pastorius)
• 1982 Wild Things Run Fast (Joni Mitchell)
• 1984 Sound-System (Herbie Hancock)
• 1985 Dog Eat Dog (Joni Mitchell)
• 1986 The Power of Three (Michel Petrucciani)
• 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm (Joni Mitchell, recorded 1981)
• 1989 The End of the Innocence (Don Henley)
• 1990 Night Ride Home (Joni Mitchell)
• 1994 Turbulent Indigo (Joni Mitchell)
• 1994 A Tribute to Miles (Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and Wallace Roney)
• 1997 1+1 (Herbie Hancock)
• 1998 Taming the Tiger (Joni Mitchell)
• 2000 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
• 2002 Travelogue (Joni Mitchell)
• 2007 The Joni Letters (Herbie Hancock

Awards

• Down Beat Poll Winner New Star Saxophonist (1962)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance for Weather Report's 8:30 (1979)
• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for Dexter Gordon's Call Sheet Blues (1987)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group for A Tribute To Miles (1994)
• Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for High Life (1996)
• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for Aung San Suu Kyi (1997)
• NEA Jazz Masters (1998)
• Honorary Doctorate of Music (1999; Berklee College of Music)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for In Walked Wayne (1999)
• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for Sacajawea (2003)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group for Alegría (2003)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group for Beyond The Sound Barrier (2005)
• Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Award Small Ensemble Group of the Year to Wayne Shorter Quartet (2006)

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