Ajit Karn
New York: Wayne Shorter, a legendary saxophonist regarded as one of America’s greatest jazz composers and one of the genre’s foremost innovators, passed away in Los Angeles on Thursday. He was 89.
Alisse Kingsley, Wayne Shorter’s publicist, verified his passing to AFP without elaborating on the cause of death.
The mysterious jazz elder performed alongside fellow legend Miles Davis and went on to become a prominent bandleader on both soprano and tenor sax, including with his group Weather Report.
He was one of the last surviving jazz legends to have honed his skills during the genre’s zenith in the 1950s, when it was both the background music at dance halls and acquired a foothold in intellectual circles.
Wayne Shorter, who was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 25, 1933, demonstrated an early interest in music and began playing clarinet as an adolescent.
Shortly thereafter, he began playing the saxophone, which would become his preferred instrument.
Wayne Shorter and his brother played bebop, nicknaming themselves “Mr. Weird” and “Doc. Strange” for their eccentric behaviour, such as donning dark eyeglasses in a darkened club.
In 2004, Wayne Shorter told The Atlantic, “We wore dishevelled clothing because we believed it enhanced our bebop performances.”
“In order to be genuine, you had to be raggedy.”
He attended New York University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in music education in 1956, and spent two years in the army, where he played with jazz pianist Horace Silver.
Before obtaining the 2018 Kennedy Center Honor, which recognises excellence in American arts, he told The Washington Post, “I thought I had a lot of catching up to do.” “I knew that most people began playing instruments at age five, so I knew I had a lot of ground to make up.”
“Opportunities arose at a rate I had not anticipated once the situation began to change.”
– ‘True composer’ –
In 1964, Wayne Shorter departed Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, with whom he gained international renown, toured for four years, and became musical director, in order to join trumpeter Miles Davis.
Davis’ Second Great Quintet featured keyboardist Herbie Hancock, who subsequently became one of Wayne Shorter’s closest companions and most frequent collaborators.
It was with this group that Wayne Shorter began to exercise his composing muscles, channelling his innovative personality within the framework of traditional jazz conventions.
Davis often characterised the ethos of the Second Great Quintet as “time, no changes” – permitting unfettered jazz without completely abandoning strictures.
The collaboration produced some of the most well-known jazz of the 20th century, including “E.S.P.,” “Nefertiti,” and “Footsteps.”
Davis wrote in his autobiography, “Wayne is a genuine composer” with a “curiosity for working with musical principles.”
“If they didn’t work, he broke them, but with musical sense; he understood that liberation in music was knowing the rules well enough to modify them to your own satisfaction and taste.”
“The eternity of composition”
In 1970, Wayne Shorter co-founded Weather Report, where he played a pivotal role in the development of jazz fusion, which fused the harmonies and improvisation of jazz with the emergence of rock, funk, and R&B.
Over the course of its 16-year career, the band adopted a new style of performing that discouraged soloists from playing with accompaniment and instead encouraged all band members to improvise concurrently.
Weather Report was also interested in the technological advancements in music, experimenting with electronic elements.
Wayne Shorter’s collaborations with Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, and Carlos Santana, among others, expanded his fan base.
Between 1977 and 2002, Wayne Shorter collaborated on each of Joni Mitchell’s albums.
“Listening to a discourse between Joni Mitchell and Wayne Shorter was one of the finest experiences of my life,” Hancock said of their work.
“I had an agape mouth just to hear them speak. They are able to make these leaps and bounds because they have no need for explanations.”
Mitchell also heaped praise on Wayne Shorter, describing his work style as “the distinction between ingenuity and talent.”
Shorter, a devotee of comics and a longtime Buddhist practitioner, released “Emanon” in 2018, a triple-disc album housed within a 74-page fantasy graphic novel he co-wrote about a “rogue philosopher” who battles evil with the truth.
In his 2007 biography, he had stated more than a decade earlier, “I hope to convey eternity through composition.”
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Wayne Shorter, who received the majority of available lifetime achievement awards and a Guggenheim fellowship throughout his career, continued to tour well into his golden years, although chronic health issues eventually slowed him down.
He had recently kept a subdued profile, composing an opera with bassist Esperanza Spalding that premiered in 2021.
As he struggled to pay his medical debts, Hancock organised a series of all-star tribute concerts to cover the costs.
In 2018, Wayne Shorter told The New York Times, “My definition of faith is not to be afraid of anything.”
“I believe that music opens doors and portals to uncharted territories that require fortitude to enter.”
