The sad news is out that Wayne Shorter passed away earlier today. One of the major innovators of the post hard bop school via his work with Miles, Weather Report and his own various quartets he became the keeper of the flame sparked by Coltrane whilst maintaining his own identity.
I saw him but the once - at a 2013 London Jazz Festival concert at the Barbican where he defied his then 80 years with a memorable first set performance. The second set saw him with the BBC Concert Orchestra which, despite his playing, paled by comparision.
Still the memory of that first set will remain with me until I join him. In the meantime, I've the albums with Blakey, Miles, his legendary Blue Note album Speak No Evil and my own favourite Without a Net to remember him by. The latter title absolutely sums up his playing.
Rest In Peace. Lance
7 comments :
I was lucky enough to hear Wayne twice with Weather Report and, on another occasion, at the long-since closed Riverside on Melbourne Street in Newcastle where he appeared with his band featuring a young Cyrus Chestnut on piano.
Many years ago I had a video about Trane which featured Wayne saying people in the audience used to shout to him 'go ahead young young John Coltrane'. Nowadays people are more likely to say the Second Great Quintet are the greatest small jazz group ever though - with apologies to Maestro Ellington - I'd happily omit the word small. Other members of the band were increasingly writing music for this band and particularly Wayne Shorter and I suspect this was why Miles started sub-titling the albums 'Directions in Music by Miles Davis.'
While he undoubtably took a back seat in Weather Report from album three onwards allowing Maestro Zawinul to forge ahead, this was one of two bands virtually everybody agrees were the greatest in the whole of Jazz/Funk/Rock/Fusion. Prior to both Shorter was one of the greatest Jazz Messenger of all and had an illustrious solo career throughout.
I too was at that gig at the Barbican and I'm guessing Lance was also tempted by the Sonny Rollins gig the following night which ended up being cancelled. I think it's fair to say he liked it more than me; the first set was okay, it was fine, though he didn't contribute much, but I didn't even last the whole of the second set. He didn't need to perform with an orchestra to be a 'serious' musician and composer.
Recently I read somewhere that there used to be an all but official acceptance that Jazz had produced a magnificent seven jazz tenor players. With apologies to Mr Getz, I find it unthinkable that such a list wouldn't now include Wayne Shorter.
Stan Getz was in the top 7 and not Wayne? Messed up
I think this Magnificent Seven was devised before Wayne, or at least before lots of Wayne.
Still the fact that Stan Getz would get a mention is nothing more than institutionalised racism quite frankly ...
Trane , Joe Henderson, Dexter, sonny, coleman Hawkins , Ben Webster , Lester Young, Hank Mobley ,
Getz isn't realistically in the top 20 let alone top 7
Racism works two ways as your list shows. Stan Getz should be on anyone's list along with Tubby Hayes.
Even if your favourites are Tubby Hayes and Stan Getz, you still can’t have them above Trane, Wayne, Joe, Dexter, Hank Mobley, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Golson , Sonny . It’s not racist to say that. It’s black American music - the greats of the music are in the whole not white and not English so ,to include either Getz or Hayes over Wayne is very offensive. It’s ok to be more into them in terms of taste but not at all in terms of importance to the black art form that is jazz.
Trane
Sonny
Dexter Gordon
Sonny Rollins
Wayne Shorter
Joe Henderson
Lester Young
Coleman Hawkins
Hank Mobley
Ben Webster
I challenge anyone to swap any of these artists with a white tenor player in terms of importance to the lineage, with a reason that is more than just personal taste.
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