“Wayne is a transformer… He takes you outside the box and into expanded possibilities.” So says Herbie Hancock in the foreward to Michelle Mercer’s biography of Wayne Shorter, Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter. A good encapsulation of what the enigmatic Shorter has brought to jazz over a career that spans close to 60 years.
That said, Shorter’s first records as a leader in the late ’50s and early ’60s seem tame compared to the trail he would later blaze, including with his current quartet (its most recent release is aptly named Without a Net). Nevertheless, even back then he brought an adventurous spirit to his compositions and playing. Shorter’s association with Blue Note began in 1964 and would produce 11 records spanning seven years. The three-year period 1964-’66 was particularly fertile, spawning seven records.
If that’s not enough, 1964 was also the year that joined Miles Davis’ second great quintet, with Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums), producing the great E.S.P. album the following year, the first of several landmark records.
While Shorter’s albums as a leader were closer to the bop tradition, when he and his bandmates in the Miles Davis quintet got together they really pushed the envelope. The difference is very clear when you compare two versions of Wayne Shorter’s famous composition “Footprints” from the period. The tune appears on Shorter’s own Adam’s Apple in 1966 and is locked into a fixed groove, very much ‘in the pocket’. A year earlier, it had appeared on Miles’ E.S.P. in radically different form, much looser, more fluid and adventurous, with Tony Williams cymbal-dominated drumming shifting continuously between a swinging shuffle to a skittering chase and back. Hear for yourself:
Wayne Shorter – Footprints / Miles Davis – Footprints
Miles would continue to push his protégés to expand the boundaries of jazz over the next few years, paving the way for his electric period of the 70s, most famously represented by the double album Bitches Brew. Wayne Shorter for his part would hook up with Joe Zawinul to form pioneering jazz fusion group Weather Report (the live album 8:30 from 1979 is a TW favorite).
If Shorter’s music was yet to truly break out of the box in the mid-’60s, there’s great music to discover on all of these records. Night Dreamer is the most conventional, closest to the hard bop roots. Juju is more angular. Speak No Evil is the best known and most immediately accessible, loaded with great tunes. The Soothsayer got lost in the explosive burst of activity and wasn’t released until 1979 – perhaps because the tunes aren’t quite as memorable. Etcetera is superb but it too was shelved and didn’t come out until 1980. The All Seeing Eye is as far out as Shorter got during this period – a concept album about the meaning of life, and the nature of God and the universe. Adam’s Apple brings him back to Speak No Evil territory, smooth and cool.
Hancock, Carter and Williams are among the featured players. But the formidable lineup of sidemen also includes pianist McCoy Tyner, trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Elvin Jones. All legends in their own right.
Here’s a Spotify taster with a selection tracks from the seven albums: W. Shorter ’64-’66
Jóhann Jóhannsson – The Theory of Everything
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