Like the shape-shifting music he made throughout his life, Wayne Shorter was always pushing forward, always seeking new aural adventures and challenges. His death Thursday in Los Angeles at the age of 89 marks the passing of a tireless innovator whose fans ranged from countless jazz artists to such admirers as Carlos Santana, his periodic collaborator, and Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea.
In a career that stretched across more than six decades, Shorter established himself as a singular tenor and soprano saxophonist, brilliant composer, fearless improviser and first-rate band leader.
His work as a solo artist and as the co-founder of the hugely influential band Weather Report — like his tenures in the famed bands of Miles Davis and Art Blakey — defined him as a true original. So did his collaborations with such diverse artists as Joni Mitchell, the Rolling Stones and Brazilian singing great Milton Nasciemento.
Shorter's originality was as pronounced in conversation as onstage in performance, as Shorter demonstrated in the four Union-Tribune interviews I was privileged to do with him between 1985 and 2006.
"I hope my music will be regarded as an expression that came from a person who was indestructibly happy," he told me in our first interview 38 years ago. "And who, if not thought of as happy at one time, arrived there — not through music — but through arriving at the highest possible life position. I'd like to be thought of not only for what I communicate, but also for what comes after."
Shorter won the most recent of his 12 Grammy Awards in February. Yet, while he was accorded numerous accolades in his life, including becoming a Kennedy Center Honor recipient in 2018, what really mattered to him was the quest to always push himself forward as an artist and as a person who transcended easy categorization.
"Whatever that word, 'jazz,' could mean, to me it's the spirit of the pursuit of freedom and happiness," Shorter told me in a 2002 interview. "And a sub-definition of jazz is: 'No category'."
Or, as he expounded in our 1997 interview: "I feel the freedom to do music and be creative (means) you should be able to work your creativity through any medium.
"And you gain wisdom through being gregarious as a person, rather than folding inward and declaring you are doing something 'pure and uncontaminated.' That's the worst thing that can happen."
Shorter's ability to be creative in any medium was showcased the first time I heard him perform with Weather Report at the 1976 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The band's dazzling creations were not jazz, fusion or world music, per se, but a beguiling combination of all of them — and more.
Yet, while Weather Report sold more albums and played to larger audiences than almost any other jazz-related band in the 1970s and early '80s, Shorter's role in the group gradually diminished before he quit in 1986. His album, "Atlantis," released in 1985 was his first solo outing in 11 years.
"Sometimes you have to be quiet to hear the rest of the world," he told m in our 1985 interview. "I think I've been quiet long enough ..."
Those seeking in-depth autobiographical information about Shorter have multiple options. For those seeking to hear him in his own words, here are our complete 1985, 1997 and 2006 interviews with him.
Wayne Shorter's quiet time engenders long-awaited album
By George Varga
Oct. 6, 1985, San Diego Union-Tribune
"Sometimes you have to be quiet to hear the rest of the world," said Wayne Shorter. "I think I've been quiet long enough ..."
Most jazz fans would agree.
Indeed, Shorter's first solo album in 11 years, the recently released "Atlantis," has been anticipated with the kind of glee archaeologists might reserve for the discovery of the fabled undersea island by that name.
Equally exciting is the news that the esteemed 52-year-old musician and his newly formed quintet will kick off their maiden tour with performances here tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. and Tuesday at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. at P.J.'s, 200 Fifth Ave.
A supremely gifted saxophonist and a stirring, sometimes visionary composer, Wayne Shorter rose to prominence in the late 1950s and '60s in the bands of Art Blakey and Miles Davis before co-founding Weather Report in 1971 with keyboardist Joseph Zawinul.
In the 14 years since Weather Report's inception, the New Jersey native has contributed in varying degrees to each of the group's 14 albums, and also has collaborated with Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, top Brazilian singer-songwriter Milton Nascimento and VSOP, an all-star band of Miles Davis alumni featuring pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams. (Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard replaced the errant Davis.)
Beginning in the late '70s, Shorter's role in Weather Report diminished considerably, as did his participation in musical activities outside the group. Some observers blamed Zawinul for Shorter's diminished group participation, contending that the domineering keyboardist had stolen the limelight from the saxophonist.
Shorter, a thoughtful, eloquent man who is as soft-spoken as he is self-effacing, disagreed.
"No, no," he insisted, at the start of a rare, in-depth interview last week. "There's a limelight of superficiality, and there's a deep kind of existence, like an infrared ray. For a long time in Weather Report, I abstained. I elected not to do things. At the same time I was cultivating many other aspects of my life. I was building inner resources that can't be seen.
"You might say I was building an inconspicuous bank account of stairsteps to wisdom that can be used when the time comes. All the good things I can do inwardly allow me to forge ahead, as I am now, and be a strong and reliable example for younger people."
The release of Shorter's new album and the formation of his band quickly followed the recent announcement that Weather Report would go on hiatus. Weather Report drummer Omar Hakim is on tour with the Police's Sting, while bassist Victor Bailey has joined the critically celebrated Steps Ahead. Synthesizer master Zawinul recently returned from a solo tour of Europe and is now recording his own album.
Ironically, Weather Report's decision to call things to a temporary halt came after the release earlier this year of one of the group's best albums, "Sportin' Life." Although it was initially reported that the award-winning ensemble would regroup early next year, it now appears that the split may last longer.
"It feels good (to be apart), and there's the possibility that a lot of other doors may open," Shorter said. "There are a lot of things that don't fit in the Weather Report format. I think people will get the best out of Weather Report when they get the best out of the individuals in the group."
Does this mean that the time spent apart will allow Weather Report's members to regroup renewed and refreshed?
"I've thought about that, but it seems like there would be no reason to get back together but to make new hits," the saxophonist answered.
"The Beatles had more reason to get back together; a lot of groups have better reasons to get back together. People look sentimentally at (us) regrouping. It's like not being on 'Dallas' or 'Dynasty' for a while. Reversing something that's happened can be like, you know, trying to put on a pair of shoes you had when you were 6 after you're grown up."
Shorter's new album is his first since "Native Dancer," his luminescent 1974 collaboration with Brazil's Milton Nascimento. A buoyant, upbeat effort that exudes considerable charm, "Atlantis" offers no major innovations or stylistic advancements. Nevertheless, it marks a welcome return by a musician who is perhaps the most imitated soprano saxophonist of the past 15 years.
"I'm glad it turned out as it did," Shorter said. "It's not a big, grandstand play. I haven't made an album for 11 years, but I didn't feel I had to make a shocker, a killer record; an announcement of the invasion of my next solo album. We did a month of recording, and it was like the song 'Jingle Bells' — we laughed all the way.
"That was our basic life condition. There was no dogmatic insistency to make some part of the album be reflective of seriousness, or art for art's sake or 'Desperately Seeking Dollars.' None of that was happening. What was happening was really fun.
"People like to ask what direction I'm going in ..." (Shorter assumed the voice of a sports announcer: 'There's a direction here. Yes, it's definitely a direction, folks!')
"That's not important, you know? What's important is a daily attitude. I feel that sometimes great things happen in daily life that you don't hear about, and people you've never heard of do amazing things every day.
"And daily life is what most people are interested in; even when you're at the movies, you're a composite of your daily life. There's something about my writing that relates to that inseparability, and that ingredient is happening in my music a lot more now than 10 years ago. Of course, Joe (Zawinul) says that sometimes you have to hit your muse with a two-by-four!"
Since none of the musicians who accompany Shorter on "Atlantis" is available for touring, he had to assemble a new group for his performances. Members of his 2-week-old quintet include ex-Al Jarreau keyboardist Tom Canning, regular Chick Corea drummer Tom Brechtlein, Phil Upchurch-Hubert Laws bassist Gary Willis and flutist Kent Jordan, who appeared in San Diego last June as a member of the Wynton Marsalis Quintet. Their repertoire combines classic Shorter compositions from the '60s such as "Footprints," "Swee Pea" and "Sanctuary" with selections from his newest release.
"Most of the material we're doing off 'Atlantis' is like a point of departure," said bassist Willis, a 28-year-old Texan who was recommended to Shorter by Jimmy Haslip of the Yellowjackets.
"The way Wayne writes can be real specific on one number and real vague and free on the next. It's a great challenge. He definitely wants us to play things that communicate instead of demonstrate. A sense of commitment is an overriding consideration for Wayne."
Shorter added, "A band is best led that leads itself, and these guys recognize that. What's required are the ingredients you need to put into action in case of any emergency or 'emotional manifestations'; I like saying that better than 'sudden outburst of emotions.'
"I prefer having a band that can manifest at different speeds, like a train that slows down enough for you to hop on or maybe even drive it. You have to make sure your music has a timeless quality."
That timeless quality has imbued Wayne Shorter's work almost since his first professional job as a member of pianist Horace Silver's group in 1958. Thereafter, Shorter collaborated with a number of prominent musicians, gaining valuable insights from each.
"Horace Silver hipped me to publishing; the importance of owning your own copyrights," he said.
"With Maynard Ferguson, I had the chance to write one good big-band composition, 'Nellie Bly.' When I was with Art Blakey, I had a good chance to learn to develop a solo as an improvised musical story. People have to learn how to tell a story in their own way, and people can usually tell if you're not telling any story in any way."
It was while he was playing in Blakey's famed Jazz Messengers that Shorter was first approached to join Miles Davis' band, an offer he initially rejected ("Remember Benedict Arnold?" asked the saxophonist, chuckling.) Finally, in 1964, after five years with Blakey, Shorter teamed up with the trumpet titan to form a quintet that would set a standard for future jazz groups. He recalls his tenure with Davis fondly.
"In that band we had a lot of fun with 'inconspicuous development,' " Shorter said. "A lot of things we played that you couldn't see or hear would suddenly hit you right between the eyes. Every night was a real challenge, because we were all reaching for that creative experience. Did we know we were setting a new standard? We had notions that we could have been. But, up to today, no one has ever accurately hit what it was we did.
"I think about my six years with Miles and, more than having set a standard of music, I think about the value that came out of it. And the value is that all of us are still alive; we didn't foolishly kill ourselves ... No one's ever been killed by a musical note, but the things that you do offstage can kill you, kill your healthy vision, interfere with your life and set bad examples for kids."
Shorter recently returned from Paris, where he co-starred in the movie "Round Midnight," a film based loosely on the life of seminal bop pianist Bud Powell. After completing his world tour early next year, Shorter hopes to collaborate again with Milton Nascimento, and is also scheduled to record a duet album of original contemporary classical music with erstwhile Weather Report partner Zawinul.
In the meantime, the happily married father of two speaks with the boundless enthusiasm of a child set free in a candy shop.
"I hope my music will be regarded as an expression that came from a person who was indestructably happy. And who, if not thought of as happy at one time, arrived there — not through music — but through arriving at the highest possible life position. I'd like to be thought of not only for what I communicate, but also for what comes after.
"A doctor wrote me recently that my music made him want to be a better surgeon, and that made me want to be a better musician and human being."
Saxman teams with Hancock to revel in risky business
By George Varga
Sept. 4, 1997, San Diego Union-Tribune
The Rolling Stones and Joni Mitchell have Wayne Shorter's number.
So does longtime collaborator Herbie Hancock, with whom Shorter is touring to promote their album of saxophone and piano duets, "1+1."
Mitchell, who has recorded with Shorter off and on since 1977, recently called on the gentle sax giant to perform on five songs for her new album, due out early next year.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and Stones producer Don Was also called on Shorter earlier this year in Los Angeles. They invited him to collaborate on a Richards-sung ballad for the Stones' upcoming "Bridges to Babylon" album, due out Sept. 30.
Both projects were approached with equal enthusiasm by Shorter, who rose to fame in the early 1960s in the bands of jazz drum dynamo Art Blakey and trumpet legend Miles Davis. Shorter reached an even broader audience in the 1970s and early '80s with Weather Report, the pioneering fusion band he co-founded with former Davis band colleagues Joe Zawinul and Airto Moriera.
Then as now, the soprano and tenor saxophonist has thrived by constantly seeking new adventures and doing the unexpected. His album and tour with Hancock extends his appetite for risk-taking even more.
"We don't know what's going to happen — that's the whole point," Shorter said. He and Hancock perform here Tuesday at Humphrey's, with San Diego saxophonist James Moody and his quartet as the opening act.
"A robot can move its fingers automatically, but I don't know what I'm going to do (ahead of time); we don't know. It's as close to simultaneous cause-and-effect as you can get. We're finding that out every moment."
Being pigeonholed in any way is anathema to Shorter, whose previous recording partners include rock guitarist Carlos Santana and Brazilian singing legend Milton Nasciemento. He laughed heartily when told that his collaboration with the Rolling Stones may prompt accusations of "going rock 'n' roll" from some myopic observers.
"I don't allow statements like that to take me out of my spaceship and pull me off course," Shorter said. "Because I feel the freedom to do music and be creative (means) you should be able to work your creativity through any medium.
"And you gain wisdom through being gregarious as a person, rather than folding inward and declaring you are doing something 'pure and uncontaminated.' That's the worst thing that can happen."
Shorter, a practicing Buddhist since the early 1970s, let out a sly chuckle.
"Art Blakey used to say that a lake that has no outlet or inlet is pure and pollutes itself," he said. "And pure inbreeding is old hat. So that's a musical argument against purity. And if somebody wants to argue about that, I'll say, 'Get a life.' "
With his stunning new album and ongoing tour with Hancock, Shorter has a new lease on his own life, figuratively if not literally.
Bold and uncompromising, "1+1" offers many rewards in return for the attentive listening it commands. A marvel of subtlety, sophistication and seemingly telepathic interplay, the album eschews the standard variations-on-a-theme jazz approach.
Instead, Shorter and Hancock have assumed a far more intricate and unpredictable approach. What results — on record and in concert — is an aural treat of rare depth and daring.
"It's a new beginning," affirmed Shorter, speaking from Los Angeles.
"So that's what you're looking at in a duo format every night on stage — a whole new series of beginnings that essentially seek adventure and drama. And the audience receives it personally, rather than as a mass consensus of 'knock 'em, sock 'em, rock 'em, where's the cymbal crash?'
"We played for 10,000 people this summer at the Newport Festival. And (promoter) George Wein and a lot of other people were saying it was amazing that we held the audience's attention, and that everybody listened quietly. When it was over, it was a big, healthy response.... Creativity inspires people to celebrate life and direct their own destiny, happily, rather than to 'go along with the program.' "
Combining the stately grace of chamber music with impeccably nuanced improvisations, the shadow-dance-like compositions on "1+1" repeatedly and deliberately blur the lines between structure and spontaneous creation.
"Herbie was saying the other day: 'No matter where I go on the piano, Wayne is there!' " Shorter said, his voice dancing with delight.
Both musicians listen as hard as they play. By not hesitating to challenge themselves or their listeners, the two former Miles Davis Quintet colleagues have achieved a new level of musical expression and eloquence.
"It's two people going at it, doing a reflection of life," said Shorter, who looks at least a decade younger than his 63 years.
"And neither one of us is designated as what you think we should be. Herbie is not the soloist, and I'm not the accompanist. And I'm not the acrobat, and Herbie's not the net — or the trapeze. It's a never-ending dimensional foray. One night I told the audience, 'This is music for films that will never be made.' "
The pain of loss
Apart from the avant-garde-leaning Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron, it's difficult to name another notable saxophone-piano duo in jazz, let alone one this distinguished. Sensing history in the making, fans and musicians have greeted the teaming of Shorter and Hancock as one of the major jazz events of the year.
"My wife and I were just listening to '1+1,' and it takes you to another world," Carlos Santana, Shorter's periodic collaborator and longtime friend, said last week. "Wayne is that link with (John) Coltrane, (Igor) Stravinsky and Miles (Davis). The word 'genius' gets tossed around a lot, but Wayne is a genius. He's like a spiritual pied piper who makes your soul stand at attention. Wayne definitely has that spirit."
A quiet and deeply spiritual man, Shorter regards music, like all art and life itself, as a constant process of rebirth and renewal.
"In a sense," he said, "you can say a song is never finished. Beginnings and endings are artificial to me in any book or movie or life; it's a temporary state of rest."
But any state of rest is rare for Shorter, whose wife, Ana Maria, died in last year's explosion of TWA Flight 800 shortly after it left New York for Paris. Much of the music on "1+1" is an elegy saluting her memory in which pain is transformed into beauty.
"What is music for?" Shorter asked rhetorically. "I say: 'For all kinds of different things.' "
He is completing a major orchestral composition, commissioned by New York's prestigious Jazz at Lincoln Center, that will debut next spring. Also in the works is a new solo album, which he matter-of-factly terms "indescribable," and a classical album.
In addition, Shorter expects to continue working with Hancock, most likely in an expanded lineup with free-thinking young musicians who are not set in their ways.
"I want to play with independent individuals who are very daring because they have a sense of deep responsibility to each other, to the celebration of life and to the musical conduit that exists within life," Shorter said.
"There's a wealth of information and wisdom to draw from."
A new kind of rush - Wayne Shorter always had a passion for music - now, he feels it in young audiences, too
By Georga Varga
Aug. 17, 2006, San Diego Union-Tribune
Wayne Shorter, budding teen idol?
The man long hailed as one of the most gifted and innovative saxophonists, composers and bandleaders in music, a new favorite for young fans of Gnarls Barkley and Nelly Furtado?
Well, not exactly.
But Shorter, who rose to fame in the 1960s playing with Art Blakey and Miles Davis before co-founding the seminal fusion group Weather Report, has noticed something afoot at his concerts in recent years.
"When we play now, a lot of young people are in the audience," Shorter said recently from his home in Florida. "In fact, our most recent concerts have been filled with young people.
"We just played at Massey Hall in Toronto and at Interlochen in Michigan. And this never happened before, but the kids in Interlochen rushed the stage. It was not sold out, but there were almost 1,500 people there and almost all of them rushed the stage to shake hands with us. These were mostly 17- and 18-year-olds. Then we played in Ohio and the same thing happened. And it's been the same in Europe over the past two years."
This intriguing phenomenon could be repeated when he and his all-star group perform here tonight at the Stephen and Mary Birch North Park Theatre. Their concert is being presented as part of SummerFest, under the auspices of the La Jolla Music Society. The society also co-commissioned tomorrow's world premiere of "Terra Incognita," a new Shorter composition that will be performed by the Imani Winds at Sherwood Auditorium in La Jolla.
The surge of interest in his music from young listeners may surprise or even baffle cynics, at least those who contend young people have no interest in the improvisational daring and structural intricacies of jazz.
Shorter, though, is more pleased than surprised at this unlikely turn of events.
At 72, he is old enough to have been born six years before the Great Depression ended in 1939. But he is wise enough to realize how important it is to stay in touch with the unfettered curiosity that sparked his enduring interest in music, film and comic books as an adolescent. And he is convinced that his own youthful sense of adventure now is a key reason his quartet's multifarious music is connecting so strongly with audience members young enough to be his great-grandchildren.
"We are assiduous in our efforts to remember what it's like when you're 10, 11, 12, 13 years old," Shorter said. "Remember when you were a kid and you went out to play with your friends? If somebody would ask, 'What are you kids doing?' the answer would often be, `Oh, nothing.' But we were improvising, playing in a world of make-believe.
"And people tend to lose that spirit as adults, when they face adult decisions, like marriage and all that. The idea of going outside and playing is lost, and making a decision with purity behind it is tainted by us giving up that power — the power of youth, the purity and the hunger for exploration.
"What we hear from these kids who come to hear us are things like, `Wow! We knew there was something new, something different, something creative.' "
This enticing combination of something new, different and creative has been an artistic imperative for this New Jersey native since not long after the release of his first solo album, 1959's "Introducing Wayne Shorter."
Equally gifted on tenor and soprano saxophones, he launched his career in 1956 as a member of Horace Silver's group. After serving in the U.S. Army, he joined trumpeter Maynard Ferguson's band, followed by a five-year stint in Blakey's famed Jazz Messengers. It was then that he started to come into his own as a player and a writer.
These two skills would fully blossom during his subsequent five years with Davis, when Shorter wrote such classics as "E.S.P.," "Nefertiti" and "Footprints," and recorded such landmark solo albums as "Speak No Evil" and "Super Nova." All were testaments to his uncanny ability to write music that was both complex yet inviting, impeccably nuanced yet emotionally warm and free of even a hint of affectation.
Perhaps the most influential saxophonist-composer in modern jazz, post-John Coltrane, Shorter is remarkable in his bold use of form and texture. Ditto his ingeniously asymmetrical phrases, unexpected harmonies and ability to fuse a variety of musical approaches — post-bop, blues, free-form, classical and more — into a singular body of work that defies easy categorization.
"Miles used to ask: 'How do you play certain things?' But he didn't mean music," Shorter recalled. "He got tired of hearing things that sounded like music, and that takes in all the pop music ever written. I would say that the pop music readily embraced by the majority of humanity, whether they're musicians or not, is almost like a knee-jerk embracement. And that's due to a lot of conditioning and taking things for granted, or because it creates a comfort zone.
"So it's very interesting to go into this process of total creativity, in order to give us a greater appreciation of what life really is. It's an adventure. It's an adventure to not think about the money and to use your imagination. Because a lot of imagination is not really imagination at all. I would say that Madison Avenue's marketing devices just become obstacles for self-discovery. But all that cannot stop this honing device for creativity people are born with."
Shorter defines jazz as "the spirit of the pursuit of freedom and happiness."
It's an approach shared by his bandmates — pianist Danilo Perez, former Chick Corea bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade (whose past employers include Herbie Hancock, Joshua Redman, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris). Now in their fifth year together, Shorter and his group have developed a telepathic rapport that allows them to explore new musical vistas on a nightly basis.
"They don't have superficial values," Shorter said of his three collaborators. "They're not fooled by frivolous things, like envy, jealousy or fighting about who's going to be out front and this and that. The big thing we have going for us is trust. And we want to work this trust thing to a point where it actually proves that there's no such thing as a (musical) coincidence or a mistake. ...
"We have these long, healthy moments (on stage) where we don't know what we're going to do. Even when we write something for ourselves or for the Imani Winds, we try to stay in the character of the unexpected. We're involved with the unexpected, and they don't have courses for the unexpected at university. We want to get you ready for the real world and get to the essence of what a human is."
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