The Prague Post
September 7th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre

Home » Archives » Night & Day

Breaking the sound barrier

A jazz giant brings his progressive quartet to Prague Spring
Stage Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
May 21st, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Shorter has been setting jazz trends for nearly 50 years.
enlarge
Wayne Shorter


When: Tuesday, May 27, at 8
Where: Rudolfinum
Tickets: 550-1,600 Kč, available through Ticketpro and at the venue

Saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter has been in the top ranks of American jazz for almost 50 years, playing with and considered among the most important and prolific  musicians of his era. In terms of quality, he’s a perfect fit for Prague Spring.
Shorter was playing a blaring saxophone with the legendary drummer Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers in 1960 when he turned down an offer to replace John Coltrane in Miles Davis’ group (which Coltrane had urged him to take). But Shorter, born in 1938, in Newark, New Jersey, wasn’t in a hurry. He was enjoying playing with Blakey and his fellow Messengers, who at that time included Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller and Reggie Workman.
Shorter joined the Miles Davis group five years later, and together they produced some of the most important jazz albums ever. When they recorded the sublime E.S.P (on Columbia), the quintet already included Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, but only with Shorter did they take off musically. This quintet became one of the most famous groups in jazz for pushing the borders beyond hard bop, with their toned-down modal attacks into luscious and previously unexplored space.
In parallel with his years with Miles Davis, Shorter’s recordings as a band leader, from 1964–69 on Blue Note, comprise another book altogether. His debut Night Dreamer (1964), recorded with Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman and Elvin Jones, was followed up with Juju six months later. For Speak No Evil, he brought in Hancock and Carter, kept Elvin Jones and added Freddie Hubbard. Classics of their era, Shorter’s Blue Note recordings are among the most influential for today’s nu-jazz followers, and an endless gold mine for jazz-sampling DJs.
After the Miles Davis quintet split in 1968, Shorter remained with Miles to record the seminal jazz fusion album Bitches Brew (1969). He then launched out on a new trail, joining with Joe Zawinul (from Vienna) and Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš in 1971 to form Weather Report, the jazz fusion group for which he is still most famous today.
Weather Report played together until 1985. During that time, Shorter remained a close friend and collaborator with Hancock, and they have toured and occasionally recorded together to this day. So Shorter’s contributions on Hancock’s recent, 2007 Grammy Award-winning tribute to Joni Mitchell, River — The Joni Letters (Verve), are no surprise, especially since Shorter contributed to Mitchell’s recordings in the ’80s and ’90s.
In 2002, Shorter released Footprints Live (on Verve) with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade — all band leaders in their own right when not playing with Shorter. Footprints Live was recorded at three jazz festivals in Europe in 2001, and marked another breakthrough for Shorter in its return, if not to his earlier sound, at least to the attitude of his Miles Davis period, where all the musicians (and their ideas) are equal, and the common goal is to push beyond the standard fare.
In 2006, Shorter’s quartet released their second album together, Beyond the Sound Barrier, pushing themselves even further, as the album’s title implies. The songs aspire to break the jazz mold, dipping into some meandering classical music motifs. The album includes “On Wings of Song” by Felix Mendelssohn, and features some of the hardest blowing on Shorter’s part since his days with the Jazz Messengers.
Shorter continues to leave inimitable footprints across five decades of jazz history, not only spanning genres but pioneering them. His concert next week with Perez, Patitucci and Blade should be one of the highlights of Prague Spring.
Tony Ozuna can be reached at
features@praguepost.com

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (21/05/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Provokator
Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.