Wayne Shorter was considered "the idea man" behind Miles Davis's legendary 60s quintet, and the tenor and soprano sax player brings this creative input to the Hancock - Shorter quartet. Since that era nearly twentyfive years ago, Shorter has continually proved that he is one of the top reedmen in contemporary music.
Born August 25, 1933, in Newark, New Jersey, Shorter served in the U.S. Army from 1956 to 1958. He then began working with pianist H 24124y2411y orace Silver and as his reputation in New York City grew, Shorter found himself performing with the Maynard Ferguson band. This lead to a stint with Art Blakey that lasted from 1959 to 1963, by which time the saxophonist was clearly established as a newcomer to watch.
Shorter first recorded as a leader on the Vee Jay label, with albums such as Second Genesis, Blues A La Carte, and Wayning Moments. From there he recorded a series of albums on Blue Note, all of them with top sidemen, beginning with Night Dreamer and Juju on through Adam's Apple and Schizophrenia.
Concurrent to this Blue Note period, Miles Davis brought the musician into his group in 1964 and Shorter, along with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, created a sound with a bandleader that changed the face of the jazz during that tumultuous decade. The group stayed together until 1970, when Shorter formed Weather Report with Joe Zawinul.
Through his solo career and his work with Weather Report, Shorter helped to redefine the new hybrid of music that borrowed from a variety of forms, from jazz and rock to classical and electronic. He won the Downbeat poll on soprano nearly every year after 1969 (and he continues to have many fans who will listen to him in any musical context).
In 1974 Shorter recorded a landmark solo album entitled Native Dancer on Columbia, which reached the top 200. The session included an impressive array of musicians like the Brazilian vocalist Milton Nascimento, Airto and Herbie Hancock on variously recorded tracks.
Shorter's talents were in demand in more than the jazz world around this time, as he found himself recording with top pop artists like Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan. When Hancock put together his VSOP quintet to reprise the 60s Miles Davis sound, Shorter made his contribution along with Carter, Williams and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet.
The motion picture "Round Midnight" (which garnered Hancock an Academy Award for best soundtrack) featured Shorter's playing on both tenor and soprano. He formed a rewarding and unusual alliance with pianist Michel Petrucciani and guitarist Jim Hall to record the album Power of Three.
This period found Shorter forging ahead in new directions with his music, as 1986's Phantom Navigator album demonstrated. It contained four kayboards and a battery of drum machines as an expansion of the electronic sound that the saxophonist had developed with Weather Report.
Just as Miles Davis had helped to "discover" Shorter in the early 60s, Shorter has in turn focused the spotlight on a number of excellent players in his own band. Thirty-year old keyboardist Jim Beard, 25-year old drummer Terry Lyne Carrington, 36-year old percussionist Marilyn Mazur are the newcomers who have backed Shorter in recent years.
Throughout his career, Shorter has shown that he was well aware of those who came before him and influenced his style: Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster and Charlie Parker. As he gained his own musical signature, he took off from where John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy had ended, beginning to use his music to tell stories like an impressionist painter.
Bob Blumenthol of Rolling Stone has called Shorter "the most self-effacing great musician of the past twenty years. A stunning composer as saxophonist".