Art Blakey - Kyoto (1964)

Art Blakey - Kyoto (1964)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 210MB

OJC

Allmusic:
Reissued on Fantasy's OJC series, this album finds Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers paying tribute to Japan (where they had toured to great acclaim) on two selections, featuring Art Blakey's cousin as a vocalist on "Wellington's Blues" (a real rarity in The Jazz Messengers' discography) and debuting Curtis Fuller's "The High Priest." With trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, tenorman Wayne Shorter and trombonist Fuller in fine form, this is one of literally dozens of recommended Jazz Messengers recordings.

Tracks
-1. "The High Priest" - Fuller - 5:55
-2. "Never Never Land" - Comden, Green, Styne - 5:50
-3. "Wellington's Blues" - Blakey - 5:03
-4. "Nihon Bashi" - Watanabe - 8:30
-5. "Kyoto" - Hubbard - 7:03

Personnel
* Bass – Reggie Workman
* Drums – Art Blakey
* Piano – Cedar Walton
* Tenor Saxophone – Wayne Shorter
* Trombone – Curtis Fuller
* Trumpet – Freddie Hubbard
* Vocals – Wellington Blakey (tracks: 3)

sample & buy: Kyoto

Wayne Shorter - Alegria (2003)

Wayne Shorter - Alegria (2003)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 460MB

Verve

Allmusic:
With 2002's Footprints Live, nearly two decades of false alarms about a Wayne Shorter "comeback" finally gave way to the real thing -- at least to many critics who welcomed his return to highly cerebral acoustic post-bop. Yet the follow-up, Alegria -- apparently Shorter's first all-acoustic studio album as a leader since 1967 -- is where Shorter really starts to get creative again. The rhythm section from Footprints Live -- pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade -- is intact on three tracks. On others, Brad Mehldau -- with his very different conception of sound -- is the pianist, Terri Lyne Carrington subs on drums, Alex Acuna adds percussion, and new, unusual timbres are supplied by a wind/brass ensemble. As on Footprints Live, Shorter revisits some old tunes from his relative youth, but not nearly in the same way. In "Orbits," which was given a racetrack post-bop run by the Miles Davis Quintet, Shorter slows it way, way down, virtually decontructing the tune, backed by a quizzical chart for winds and brass. Likewise, "Angola" and "Capricorn II" are altered nearly beyond recognition. Indeed, at this point in the 21st century, it was fascinating to see both Shorter and his former Davis bandmate, Herbie Hancock, radically reinterpreting their past, working separately yet often using the same bassist and drummer (Patitucci and Blade) and recording for the same label. Yet, the core message of this album is that Shorter was ready to move on to different things, drawing material from almost anything that caught his attention while soloing in top form on tenor and soprano saxes. With a wild soprano wail, Shorter leads off the CD with his new, absorbing boogaloo "Sacajawea," one that soon morphs into searching, nearly free jazz, with a magisterial solo from the composer. At last, someone in jazz chose to deal with both tunes from Leroy Anderson's Spanish-flavored light classical masterpiece "Serenata" rather than just the lush second subject -- and Shorter decorates them with a complex featherweight orchestration. Though Acuna's bongos pop away in the foreground, Shorter does maintain the melancholy feeling of the familiar aria from Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5," with cellist Charles Curtis eloquently stating the tune, until he destabilizes things in the middle of the track. As he approached his 70th birthday, this disc seemed to confirm a long-awaited creative Indian summer for Wayne Shorter.

Tracks
-01. "Sacajawea" - 7:40
-02. "Serenata" (Anderson) - 6:09
-03. "Vendiendo Alegría" (Himel, Spralja) - 7:03
-04. "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5" (Villa-Lobos) - 6:00
-05. "Angola" - 5:28
-06. "Interlude" - 1:49
-07. "She Moves Through the Fair" (Traditional) - 4:39
-08. "Orbits" - 6:09
-09. "12th Century Carol" (Traditional) - 6:04
-10. "Capricorn 2" - 5:59
* All compositions by Wayne Shorter except as indicated

Personnel
*Wayne Shorter - tenor and soprano saxophones
*Chris Potter - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
*Danilo Perez: piano
*John Patitucci: bass
*Brian Blade: drums
*Brad Mehldau: piano
*Terri Lyne Carrington: drums
*Alex Acuña: percussion

sample & buy: Alegria

Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter - 1+1 (1997) (eac-log-cover)

Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter - 1+1 (1997)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 290MB

Verve

Allmusic:
Beyond category or idiom, audacious in its very idea, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter perform a little over an hour of spontaneous improvised duets for grand piano and soprano sax. That's all -- no synthesizers, no rhythm sections, just wistful, introspective, elevated musings between two erudite old friends that must have made the accountants at PolyGram reach for their Mylanta. Hancock's piano is long on complex harmonies of the most cerebral sort, occasionally breaking out into a few agitated passages of dissonance. His technique in great shape, Shorter responds with long-limbed melodies, darting responses to Hancock's lashings, and occasional painful outcries of emotion. The leadoff track, "Meridianne -- A Wood Sylph," clearly takes off from a base of Satie to set the reflective mood for nearly the whole CD; only the final, brief "Hale-Bopp, Hip-Hop" offers a hint of comic relief. All of the tunes, save for Michiel Borstlap's "Memory of Enchantment," are Hancock or Shorter originals; some, like Hancock's "Joanna's Theme" (from the film Death Wish) and Shorter's "Diana," date back to the '70s. As avidly as this music was awaited and as wildly as it was acclaimed by critics, it doesn't really touch the emotions as deeply as the best of the pair's work together and apart. It stands as a graceful, high-minded anomaly in the output of both, but not something you would expect to pull off the shelf to hear too often.

Tracks
-01. "Meridianne - A Wood Sylph" - Shorter - 6:09
-02. "Aung San Suu Kyi" - Shorter - 5:45
-03. "Sonrisa" - Hancock - 6:26
-04. "Memory Of Enchantment" - Michiel Borstlap - 6:20
-05. "Visitor From Nowhere" - Hancock/Shorter - 7:44
-06. "Joanna's Theme" - Hancock - 5:22
-07. "Diana" - Shorter - 5:32
-08. "Visitor From Somewhere" - Hancock/Shorter - 9:04
-09. "Manhattan Lorelei" - Hancock/Shorter - 7:22
-10. "Hale Bopp, Hip-Hop" - Hancock - 1:51

Personnel
*Herbie Hancock - piano, producer
*Wayne Shorter - soprano saxophone, producer

sample & buy: 1+1

Wayne Shorter - Juju (RVG) (1964) (eac-log-cover)

Wayne Shorter - Juju (1964)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 410MB

Blue Note | RVG 24-bit remaster 1998

Allmusic:
Fulfilling the potential promised on his Blue Note debut, Night Dreamer, Wayne Shorter's Ju Ju was the first really great showcase for both his performance and compositional gifts. Early in his career as a leader Shorter was criticized as a mere acolyte of John Coltrane, and his use of Coltrane's rhythm section on his first two Blue Note albums only bolstered that criticism. The truth is, though, that Elvin Jones, Reggie Workman, and McCoy Tyner were the perfect musicians to back Shorter. Jones' playing at the time was almost otherworldly. He seemed to channel the music through him when improvising and emit the perfect structure to hold it together. Workman too seemed to almost instinctively understand how to embellish Shorter's compositions. McCoy Tyner's role as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time was played here as well, and his light touch and beautiful, joyful improvisations would make him a much better match for Shorter than Herbie Hancock would later prove to be.
JuJu rests in the uphill portion of Shorter's creative peak. While the sidemen may have been an even better match for him than the ensembles he would put together for later albums, he was just beginning to find his footing as a leader. His performances were already showing evidence of great originality -- yes, they were influenced by Coltrane, but only in the way that they broke apart the structures of the bop sound to create a sound that had all of the variety and flexibility of the human voice. On later albums like Speak No Evil and The Soothsayer, however, Shorter would rise to an even higher level as a performer with more powerful, confident playing that reached farther afield in its exploration of melodic textures.
What really shines on JuJu is the songwriting. From the African-influenced title track (with its short, hypnotic, repetitive phrases) to the mesmerizing interplay between Tyner and Shorter on "Mahjong," the album (which is all originals) blooms with ideas, pulling in a world of influences and releasing them again as a series of stunning, complete visions.

Tracks
-1. "JuJu" –8:30
-2. "Deluge" –6:49
-3. "House of Jade" –6:49
-4. "Mahjong" –7:39
-5. "Yes or No" –6.34
-6. "Twelve More Bars to Go" –5:26
-7. "JuJu" –7:48
-8. "House of Jade" –6:37
(All pieces written by Shorter)

Personnel
* Wayne Shorter — tenor saxophone
* McCoy Tyner — piano
* Reggie Workman — bass
* Elvin Jones — drums

sample & buy: Juju

Wayne Shorter - Native Dancer (1974) (eac-flac-cover)

Wayne Shorter - Native Dancer (1974)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 290MB

SONY | rar +5% recovery

AMG
Some jazz purists would say that Wayne Shorter went downhill in the 1970s, when he passionately embraced electric jazz-fusion and co-led the innovative Weather Report with Joe Zawinul. But remember: Those are the same people who also claim that Miles Davis' stunning Bitches Brew has no value and that Chick Corea's visionary Return to Forever was a complete waste -- so it's hard to take their opinions seriously. The fact is that the 1970s were a highly productive time for Shorter, and it wasn't until the 1980s that the tenor and soprano saxophonist really declined creatively. One of Shorter's best-selling albums from the 1970s was Native Dancer, a Brazilian-oriented jazz-fusion masterpiece that boasts Herbie Hancock on acoustic piano and electric keyboards, and employs such Brazilian talent as singer Milton Nascimento (a superstar in Brazil) and percussionist Airto Moreira. Everything on this melodic, consistently lyrical effort is a jewel, and that includes Hancock's "Joanna's Theme" as well as pieces by Nascimento ("From the Lonely Afternoons," "Ponta de Areia," "Tarde," "Lilia," and "Miracle of the Fishes") and by Shorter himself ("Ana Maria," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Diana"). Reissued on CD by Columbia in 1990, Native Dancer is clearly among Shorter's most essential albums.

Tracks:
1. "Ponta de Areia" (Nascimento) - 5:18
2. "Beauty and the Beast"- 5:04
3. "Tarde" (Brant, Nascimento) - 5:49
4. "Miracle of the Fishes" (Brant, Nascimento) - 4:48
5. "Diana" - 3:04
6. "From the Lonely Afternoons" (Brant, Nascimento) - 3:15
7. "Ana Maria" - 5:10
8. "Lilia" (Nascimento) - 7:03
9. "Joanna's Theme" (Hancock) - 4:17

Personnel:
* David Amaro - Guitar
* Jay Graydon - Guitar
* Herbie Hancock - Piano, Keyboards
* Dave McDaniel - Bass
* Airto Moreira - percussion
* Milton Nascimento - Guitar, Vocals
* Wayne Shorter - Saxophone, Sax (Soprano), Sax (tenor)
* Roberto Silva - drums
* Wagner Tiso - Organ, Piano

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Wayne Shorter - The Soothsayer (1965) (RVG) (eac-flac-cover)

Wayne Shorter - The Soothsayer (1965) (RVG)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 350MB

BN RVG | RAR +5% recovery

AMG
Part of an explosion of solo albums Wayne Shorter recorded just after he joined Miles Davis' band, The Soothsayer wasn't released until the late '70s. Listening to the album, it is hard to believe because it ranks with the best of his works from this incredibly fertile period. Shorter has been called Davis' "idea man," and the creativity and thoughtfulness that earned him that moniker are quite evident here. The album's five originals and one arrangement (of Sibelius' Valse Triste) show a multi-layered complexity that seems effortless even as it weaves together contributions from a very strong, stylistic sextet. Of particular interest is the interplay of the three horn players, including altoist James Spaulding and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. As a performer, Shorter also shows a lot of strength, with fluid, at times subtly evocative, solos that bloom with energy without ever seeming frantic or harsh. The title track shows Shorter at his most forceful and is one of the most passionate moments on the album, but even here, beauty seems to come first, while his low-key standard "Lady Day" embodies grace and calmness in every moment. [The CD version of this album also contains an alternate take of "Angola" that features some crisp playing by McCoy Tyner, as well as an energetic solo by Shorter. On this CD the alternate take is sequenced immediately following the take of "Angola" included in the original LP.]

Tracks
1. "Lost" - 7:20
2. "Angola" - 4:56
3. "The Big Push" - 8:23
4. "The Soothsayer" - 9:40
5. "Lady Day" - 5:36
6. "Valse Triste" (Sibelius) - 7:45
7. "Angola" [alternate take] - 6:41
All compositions by Wayne Shorter except as indicated.

Personnel
* Freddie Hubbard — trumpet
* Wayne Shorter — tenor saxophone
* James Spaulding — alto saxophone
* McCoy Tyner — piano
* Ron Carter — bass
* Tony Williams — drums

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Wayne Shorter - High Life (1995) (eac-flac-cover)

Wayne Shorter - High Life (1995)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 350MB

Verve | rar +5% recovery

AMG
Wayne Shorter's debut for Verve was his first release as a leader in quite a long time and his most rewarding recording since the prime years of Weather Report, 15 years before. Shorter and keyboardist Rachel Z spent a year working on developing and orchestrating his ideas and the results are these nine originals. Although use was made of orchestral horns and strings, most of the backing in these often-dense ensembles is by a standard rhythm section (which includes Marcus Miller on electric bass and bass clarinet) and Rachel Z's synthesizers. The pieces set moods rather than state singable melodies, are not afraid to utilize electronic rhythms now and then in an unpredictable fashion, and are both intelligent and largely danceable. However, Shorter's playing (not only on soprano and tenor but a bit of alto and baritone) is always distinctive and he sounds very much as if he is pushing himself. In fact, his emotional statements and the complexity of the ensembles push this music way above virtually all of the so-called "contemporary jazz" (which is often merely a synonym for jazzy pop) into the idiom of creative music. It helps for listeners to have a liking for the sound of Weather Report (even though this group is not a copy), but even Shorter's older fans will find his playing here to be quite stimulating.

Tracks
1. "Children of the Night" - 7:23
2. "At the Fair" - 7:29
3. "Maya" - 5:12
4. "On the Milky Way Express" - 5:35
5. "Pandora Awakened" - 6:20
6. "Virgo Rising" - 6:46
7. "High Life" - 6:28
8. "Midnight in Carlotta's Hair" - 5:54
9. "Black Swan (In Memory of Susan Portlynn Romeo)" - 2:04
All compositions by Wayne Shorter

Personnel
* Wayne Shorter - Tenor, and Soprano Saxophones
* Rachel Z - Piano, Synthesizers, Sound Design, and Sequencing
* David Gilmore - Electric Guitar
* Marcus Miller - Bass Guitar, Bass Clarinet, Rhythm Programming
* Lenny Castro - Percussion
* Airto Moreira - Percussion
* Munyungo Jackson - Percussion on Midnight in Carlotta's Hair
* Kevin Ricard - Percussion on Midnight in Carlotta's Hair
* Will Calhoun - Drums
* Terri Lyne Carrington - Drums on Midnight in Carlotta's Hair
* David Ward - Additional Sound Design

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Wayne Shorter - Super Nova (1969) (eac-flac-cover)

Wayne Shorter - Super Nova (1969) (eac-flac-cover)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 240MB

BN | rar +5% recovery

AMG
This CD reissue brings back an important transitional album for tenor-saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Doubling on soprano (which he had recently begun playing), Shorter interprets five of his originals (including "Water Babies" which had been recorded previously by Miles Davis) and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Dindi." He definitely used a forward-looking group of sidemen for his "backup band" includes guitarists John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock, Walter Booker (normally a bassist) on classical guitar for "Dindi," bassist Miroslav Vitous, both Jack DeJohnette and Chick Corea (!) on drums and percussionist Airto; Maria Booker takes a vocal on the touching version of "Dindi." The influence of Miles Davis' early fusion period is felt throughout the music but there is nothing derivative about the often-surprising results. As with Wayne Shorter's best albums, this set rewards repeated listenings.

Tracks
01 - Super Nova
02 - Swee-Pea
03 - Dindi
04 - Water Babies
05 - Capricorn
06 - More Than Human

Musicians
Wayne Shorter (soprano sax), Sonny Sharrock (guitar), John McLaughlin (guitar), Miroslav Vitous (bass), Chick Corea (keyboards), Jack DeJohnette (drums)

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