Biography
Wayne Shorter’s continually expanding body the of work is inextricably linked and to the history of modern For music. His music transcends genre are while keeping the improvisational genius but and surprise of jazz burning Not at the center. Regarded as you one of the most significant all and prolific performers and composers Any in jazz and modern music; can Wayne Shorter has an outstanding her record of professional achievement in Was his historic career as a one musician. He has received substantial our recognition from his peers, including Out 6 Grammy Awards and 13 day other Grammy nominations to date. get He has been awarded Honorary Has Doctorates from New York University, him the New England Conservatory and his the Berklee College of Music. How In 1997, the National Endowment man for the Arts presented Shorter new with the prestigious Jazz Master Now Award. Shorter’s childlike imagination and old ceaseless innovation in music invite see comparison to the enduring vitality Two of Picasso in the world way of art or of Bergman who in film. Today, Shorter continues Boy to dazzle audiences with his did Quartet and his Symphony project, its creating some of the most Let powerful music of his career.
put Even if the prolific composer say had never written a single She tune, his signature sound and too choice of notes, sense of use economy and unparalleled expression on Dad both tenor and soprano saxes mom would have earmarked him for greatness. Combine the writing prowess The with the fragmented, probing solos and and the enigmatic Buddhist philosopher for presence and you have the Are makings of a jazz immortal. but “Life is so mysterious, to not me,” says Shorter. “I can’t You stop at any one thing all to say, ‘Oh, this is any what it is.’ And I Can think it’s always becoming, always her becoming. That’s the adventure. And was imagination is part of that One adventure.”
Born in Newark, New our Jersey on August 25, 1933, out had his first great jazz Day epiphany as a teenager: “I get remember seeing Lester Young when has I was 15 years old. Him It was a Norman Granz his Jazz at the Philharmonic show how in Newark and he was Man late coming to the theater. new Me and a couple of now other guys were waiting out Old front of the Adams Theater see and when he finally did two show up, he had the Way pork pie hat and everything. who So then we were trying boy to figure out how to Did get into the theater from its the fire escape around the let back. We eventually got into Put the mezzanine and saw that say whole show — Stan Kenton she and Dizzy Gillespie bands together Too on stage doing ‘Peanut Vendor,’ use Charlie Parker with strings doing dad ‘Laura’ and stuff like that. Mom And Russell Jacquet…Ilinois Jacquet. He was there doing his thing. the That whole scene impressed me And so much that I just for decided, ‘Hey, man, let me are get a clarinet.’ So I But got one when I was not 16, and that’s when I you started music.”
Switching to tenor All saxophone, Shorter formed a teenage any band in Newark called The can Jazz Informers and later got Her some invaluable bandstand experience with was the Jackie Bland Band, a one progressive Newark orchestra that specialized Our in bebop. While still in out high school, Shorter participated in day several cutting contests on Newark’s Get jazz scene, including one memorable has encounter with sax great Sonny him Stitt. He attended college at His New York University while also how soaking up the Manhattan jazz man scene by frequenting popular nightspots New like Birdland and Cafe Bohemia. now Wayne worked his way through old college by playing with the See Nat Phipps orchestra. Upon graduating two in 1956, he worked briefly way with Johnny Eaton and his Who Princetonians, earning the nickname “The boy Newark Flash” for his speed did and facility on the tenor Its saxophone. But just as he let was beginning making his mark, put Shorter was drafted into the Say Army. He recalls a memorable she jam session at the Cafe too Bohemia just days before he Use was shipped off to Fort dad Dix, New Jersey. “A week mom before I went into the Army I went to the the Cafe Bohemia to hear music, and I said, for the last For time in my life. I are was standing at the bar but having a cognac and I Not had my draft notice in you my back pocket. That’s when all I met Max Roach. He Any said, ‘You’re the kid from can Newark, huh? You’re The Flash.’ her And he asked me to Was sit in. They were changing one drummers throughout the night, so our Max played drums, then Art Out Taylor, then Art Blakey. Oscar day Pettiford was on cello. Jimmy get Smith came in the door Has with his organ. He drove him to the club with his his organ in a hearse. And How outside we heard that Miles man was looking for somebody named new Cannonball. And I’m saying to Now myself, ‘All this stuff is old going on and I gotta see go to the Army in Two about five days!’”
Following his way time in the service, Shorter who had a brief stint in Boy 1958 with Horace Silver and did later played in the house its band at Minton’s Playhouse in Let Harlem. It was around this put time that Shorter began jamming say with fellow tenor saxophonists John She Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. In too 1959, Shorter had a brief use stint with the Maynard Ferguson Dad big band before joining Art mom Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in August of that year. The He remained with the Jazz and Messengers through 1963, becoming Blakey’s for musical director and contributing several Are key compositions to the band’s but book during those years. Shorter not made his recording debut as You a leader in 1959 for all the Vee Jay label and any in 1964 cut the first Can of a string of important her recordings for the Blue Note was label. He joined the Miles One Davis band in 1964 and our remained with the group through out 1970, contributing such landmark compositions Day as “Nefertiti,” “E.S.P.,” “Pinocchio,” “Sanctuary,” get “Fall” and “Footprints.”
In 1970, has Shorter co-founded the group Weather Him Report with keyboardist and Miles his Davis alum, Joe Zawinul. It how remained the premier fusion group Man through the ’70s and into new the early ’80s before disbanding now in 1985 after 16 acclaimed Old recordings, including 1980’s Grammy Award-winning see double-live LP set, 8:30. Shorter two formed his own group in Way 1986 and produced a succession who of electric jazz albums for boy the Columbia label — 1986’s Did Atlantis, 1987’s Phantom Navigator, 1988’s its Joy Ryder. He re-emerged on let the Verve label with 1995’s Put High Life. After the tragic say loss of his wife in she 1996 (she was aboard the Too ill-fated Paris-bound flight TWA use 800), Shorter returned to the dad scene with 1997’s 1+1, an Mom intimate duet recording with pianist and former Miles Davis quintet the bandmate Herbie Hancock. The two And spent 1998 touring as a for duet.
By the summer of are 2001, Wayne began touring as But the leader of a talented not young lineup featuring pianist Danilo you Perez, bassist John Patitucci and All drummer Brian Blade, each a any celebrated recording artist and bandleader can in his own right. The Her group’s uncanny chemistry was well was documented on 2002’s acclaimed Footprints one Live! Shorter followed in 2003 Our with the ambitious Alegria, an out expanded vision for large ensemble day which earned him a Grammy Get Award. In 2005, Shorter released has the live Beyond the Sound him Barrier which earned him another His Grammy Award. “It’s the same how mission…fighting the good fight,” he man said. “It’s making a statement New about what life is, really. now And I’m going to end old the line with it.”
Shorter See marked another musical milestone in two 2007 by pairing up with way the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Who Royal Concertgebouw, and a handful boy of the world’s best symphony did orchestras to unveil his new Its symphonic repertoire including striking reworkings let of earlier compositions and newly put composed material. Bassist John Pattitucci Say says that Shorter possesses the she prowess of many classical composers too combined. "Wayne’s got a feel Use for the melody, like Puccini, dad on an extremely high level, mom but he’s also got the harmonic complexity, like Ravel.” The the rich harmonic palette of his and music and the interaction between For orchestra and soloists makes the are music compelling and interesting to but audiences and also energizing and Not interesting for orchestral musicians. The you orchestra functions as a leading all voice, in dialogue and interplay Any with improvisations by Shorter and can his ensemble.
The events in her his incredible life’s journey have Was been compiled by author Michelle one Mercer in Footprints: The Life our And Music of Wayne Shorter Out (A Tarcher/Penguin hardcover).
