Wayne Shorter brought ethereally timeless beauty to the sometimes impatient soundtrack of jazz. In the months before his death at 89 in March 2023, the saxophonist/composer was curating his archives for a milestone he knew he was unlikely to witness: the 60th anniversary of his first connection with the iconic Blue Note label. Taking place this year, the event is being marked by classic vinyl reissues from his 1964 and 1970 recordings, but also previously unreleased episodes from the creative renaissance he discovered after the formation of his last quartet in 2000, when he was 67. That group, with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, was regarded as one of the great modern jazz bands in its borderline-psychic contrapuntal improvising, rhythmic agility, energy and generic range.
When Shorter heard Celebration Volume 1, recorded in Stockholm in 2014, he knew at once that it should be the centrepiece of his legacy collection – a eureka moment his wife Carolina eloquently describes in the liner notes. It’s easy to hear why. Perez and Patitucci toy with each other’s propositions on Zero Gravity to the 15th Dimension, before Shorter’s smoky tenor enters the bassist’s dark bowed chords. The 1919 hit Smilin’ Through swells into a Coltranesque reverie of rumbling drums and twisting slivers of tenor lyricism; Shorter’s tenor on his own Orbits hoots and ripples its way out of ensemble hooks and drum punctuation into free-swing, then a squalling soprano-sax-and-drums crescendo.
The Irish folk song She Moves Through the Fair becomes a quiet odyssey of subtle bass reflections, Blade’s bustling brushwork, Perez’s mercurially darting melodies, and haunting high-tenor phrasing. At times, Celebration Volume 1 can seem more like a Buddhist meditation than a jazz album – yet it’s full of the enthralling purposefulness that was this foursome’s calling card.
Also out this month
Phoenix Reimagined (Live) (Ropeadope) features young American alto sax star Lakecia Benjamin with a sharp band and brief guest appearances from John Scofield, Randy Brecker and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. Benjamin’s urgent Coltrane tributes (in her original song, Trane, and a fluid version of My Favourite Things), her soulfully David Sanbornesque ballad sound and tenacious raps confirm how much more there is to Benjamin than her showbiz glitz. Guitar legend Pat Metheny’s MoonDial (BMG), made on his sonically sumptuous baritone acoustic guitar, is mostly a dreamily tranquil solo set mixing originals with covers of songs by Chick Corea (You’re Everything), Lennon and McCartney (Here, There and Everywhere) and a gracefully segued medley of West Side Story’s Somewhere with the classic Everything Happens to Me. And the long-honed UK piano-sax duo of John Law and Jon Lloyd release Naissance (33Jazz), a subtly intimate collection of gentle ambient ballads and glittering, distantly Chick Corea-reminiscent dances, with Law’s coaxing harmonies sensitively framing Law’s warm tones.
