It’s a slam dunk. By general agreement Wayne Shorter was one of the greatest instrumentalists and composers in the history of jazz. Equally, his final quartet, with pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade is accepted to be one of the finest small groups ever assembled, its long and active duration from formation in the year 2000 to Shorter’s final gig in 2018 resulting in a stream of acclaimed live performances all around the world (and a few live albums too). Now, following Shorter’s death in March last year, comes the first of a series of tribute-releases from his label. And it’s absolutely great.
The record of a particularly inspired performance at the Stockholm Jazz Festival from 2014, the live album – which stretches over two CDs or two LPs – was chosen for release by Shorter shortly before his death, after him being sent several concert recordings to listen to. “You’ve got to come and hear this shit!” his wife Carolina recalls him shouting across the house. “Check out what these guys are doing!” That the performance is so satisfying wasn’t entirely inevitable. As a bandleader, Shorter could be generous to the point of profligacy, content to showcase the contributions of his musicians more than himself, and reluctant to give anyone anything that could be construed as instructions.
“The only thing is, leave everyone alone”, he told me in an interview in his dressing room before going on stage with the quartet at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in 2003, when the group was still young. “That’s the thing, that’s where Miles was”, he said. “We never had any rehearsals with Miles. Everybody was on their own, like university. Anyone who acted like high school wouldn’t even be in there. All that conditional stuff, it’s a judgemental thing, like “Why don’t you do this?”…It’s like people thinking they’re the professor, the same as saying “Achtung!”, or “Seig Heil!’.”
Accordingly, Shorter’s own groups could, at least prior to the quartet, sometimes lack a little in coherence or direction, and even the quartet could on occasion have a tendency to noodle. As the hand-picked musicians, band-leaders in their own right, were so skilled and displayed such empathy for each other’s contributions, it was of course noodling of a very high order. But although on ‘Celebration Volume 1’ there’s plenty of space for Perez, Patitucci and Blade to shine, Shorter keeps himself front and centre for a very good proportion of the overall running time. And better than that: he sounds right at the very top of his late period form, on both tenor and soprano saxophones. He’s also remarkably adventurous in his playing pretty much throughout, and this really is something to celebrate: in his early Eighties by the time of the Stockholm concert, Wayne Shorter still sounded ahead of the game, avant-garde even.
The compositions on the album are split between five group improvisations credited equally to all the musicians, and titled, with various amendments, as ‘Zero Gravity’ (also the title of the rich and rewarding series of films about Shorter made by director Dorsay Alavi), and several stand-alone titles. These include Shorter’s originals ‘Orbits’, ‘Lotus’ and ’She Moves Through the Fair’ (which doesn’t to my ears have much – any? – relation to the trad folk tune of the same name), plus the standard ’Smilin’ Through’ and a film theme, ‘Edge of the World’, which Shorter plays superbly on soprano. This – the last piece on the first CD – and ’She Moves Through The Fair’, which is the final piece on the second disc, are truly amazing, and very emotive. But then so much of the concert lives up to this extremely high standard. What an album, what a legacy and what a man. The band are all great but Danilo Pérez especially excels throughout.
Celebration Volume 1 is released 23 August. Other current Blue Note Wayne Shorter releases are:
- A Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of 1970’s Odyssey of Iska, out 5 July
- A Classic Vinyl Edition of 1964’s JuJu, out 16 August
- A Blue Note Authorized Dealer exclusive blue vinyl reissue of 1964’s Speak No Evil (1964) at select independent record stores out 9 Aug
