Wayne Shorter’s long and distinguished recording career can be tidily divided into four parts: 4 ½ years with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers; 5½ years with Miles Davis; 15 years with Weather Report; and 10 years with his own quartet. Of course, he recorded in many other formats, notably with John Coltrane, Lee Morgan and VSOP. One of the most interesting series of recordings is the eleven LPs he made under his own name for Blue Note Records from 1964 to 1970. These LPs, dating from the end of his Blakey tenure through his Miles Davis years, are important examples of his own music, of the way he wanted to compose and solo. They show how he moved away from the hard bop style of the Blakey years and into his own very individual style.

Shorter’s apprenticeship years ended in 1964 at the age of 31, when he quit Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, began recording his own albums and joined Miles Davis. I am using “apprenticeship” loosely because by this time Shorter was already an established name. His years with Blakey, however, were in many ways educational, Blakey being at heart a teacher of young talent. Shorter had recorded under his own name in 1959, 1960 and 1961, but generally he recorded under Blakey. Thus while developing his own individual style and sound, he was playing hard bop under the dynamic driving rhythm of Blakey.

Shorter’s Blakey recordings were received well by the critics, who recognized a promising tenor player gradually outgrowing early Coltrane and Rollins influence. When he left Blakey and started to record under his own name, there was great interest to see how different his playing would be.

Night Dreamer, Juju, Speak No Evil

His first three Blue Note albums, recorded in 1964 over 8 months, contain consistently good solos by Shorter that showed he was already an original voice. On the third album, Speak No Evil, his solos become even better. One reason for his improvement was a change in pianists. McCoy Tyner, though a great pianist, did not really suit Shorter’s conception; the appearance of Herbie Hancock on the third album made a marked difference. Playing more outside than Tyner, Hancock clearly stimulated Shorter. The pianist’s contribution on this album led to him being chosen for four more of Shorter’s Blue Note recordings. Also of great importance was Elvin Jones’s drumming. Shorter found the polyrhythmic busy style of Jones just what he needed. It’s interesting to note that for Speak No Evil, Shorter originally chose to record with a different drummer, Billy Higgins. However, after four numbers the session was abandoned and rescheduled a few weeks later with Jones. Fifty years later Speak No Evil is now an established classic in the jazz canon, chosen above all the other Shorter Blue Note Albums. To underline this, Blue Note Records recently chose Speak No Evil as one of the first albums in its 75th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue Series.

To speak so highly of Speak No Evil does not mean that Night Dreamer and Juju are inferior albums. On the contrary the music on these albums is of high quality. Indeed, Richard Cook and Brian Morton give both albums 3½ stars as opposed to the 4 stars for Speak No Evil. (The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD) The music on all three albums is always interesting and original. There are still reminders of Shorter’s Blakey years. For example, most of his solos still build to a climax where he wails in the hard bop style (“Night Dreamer,” “Yes and No,” “Witch Hunt”). Two of the albums contain a ballad (“Virgo” and “Infant Eyes”), where he plays in a new, gentler style. Overall, these three albums show how Shorter’s playing is evolving into an individual style.

So what is this individuality emerging in Shorter’s playing? First, some historical perspective. Early jazz saxophonists like Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young played mostly in a smooth style. I say “mostly” because in Lester’s solos there is sometimes some harsher honking on up-tempo numbers and because Hawkins’ tone got more of an edge over the years. The R&B fad in the 1950’s brought on  a lot of harsher sounds from saxophones. Jazz was moving away from dance music and players were seeking more personal sounds. An early example of this new approach was Thelonious Monk, who was admired by Shorter. Monk intentionally avoided the traditional piano sound by making it less pretty and by moving outside conventional harmonies. Coltrane (who worked with Monk) and Rollins were the leaders of a new generation of tenor players who took this trend to a new level. Then along came Shorter.

Shorter arrived on the jazz scene when instrumentalists were exploring new territory both harmonically and sonically. The young Shorter was fortunate that Coltrane took him under his wing and practiced with him. It’s not difficult to detect Coltrane’s influence in Shorter’s early recordings. However, while Coltrane was developing during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Shorter was a permanent member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. In this 4½-year role, he was obliged to play in the hard bop style. Of course he was able to push the limits of harmony and to develop his personal sound, but these developments were restricted by his having to play in the hard bop style. (See his 1960 “Children of the Night” solo on YouTube for a good example of his playing with The Jazz Messengers.)

Shorter must have enjoyed playing this style of jazz or he surely wouldn’t have stayed so long with Blakey. But once he was able to record his own albums, his whole approach changed. As I have said, this change emerged gradually. Night Dreamer contains many vestiges of Shorter’s long association with the Jazz Messengers. But new aspects are beginning to appear. On the ballads he exhibits a spare but gentler tone with even some vibrato. On the up-tempo numbers his tone becomes more angular and varied. This becomes possible partly because he plays far fewer notes and can thus articulate much more clearly. There is an other-worldly, restless and searching feel to his sound, which is in keeping with his compositions. The originality of this sound is undeniable.

But even more important is the change in Shorter’s improvisation. He quickly moved away from the scalar harmonic style that he had used with Blakey and began to improvise melodically in the way Lester Young had done. No longer did he pour out runs of notes based on harmonic progressions—as his mentor Coltrane had done, and as Hawkins had done earlier. Instead he used his virtuosity to improvise directly from the melody of his compositions. In his solos he returns regularly to the melody; indeed he is never far from the melody. In contrast, many of Hawkins solos contain little hint of the original melody; rather, they are improvisations on the chord sequence.

From my very elementary experience of playing the saxophone, improvising melodically is very difficult. It depends a lot on being able to play spontaneously what you hear in your head. And it’s interesting that when Shorter was woodshedding with Coltrane, they used an exercise to develop this ability. Coltrane would ask Shorter to play any motif that came into his head, and then Coltrane would try to play the exact same motif. It was a way of “speaking” through the instrument spontaneously and instinctively. Shorter has often talked about getting to the point where he can forget about his instrument and all its technical issues so that it becomes an extension of his voice. This ability is crucial for a melodic improviser. And there aren’t many of them in jazz.   

Back to the recordings and an example of the evolving Shorter style. “Dance Cadaverous” from Speak No Evil is played at a slow tempo and could be called a ballad with an edge. In fact, it is like the music that Shorter was about to compose and play for the Miles Davis recordings (“Masquelero,” for example). It is a calm and dreamy composition, its mood effectively established by Hancock’s piano. Shorter enters with a much harsher tone and uses both a  deep resonant lower note not often played on the tenor saxophone and a high note beyond the conventional range of his instrument. Harmonically and rhythmically he goes even farther out than Hancock. There are stop notes too, as well as some fast Coltrane like runs. Then suddenly he plays a little of the melody and his playing becomes gentler for a while before again going outside. When the gentle melody is repeated after his solo, the listener is struck with the contrast. The ensemble melody highlights the angular quality of his playing.

The Soothsayer, Etcetera

His next two recordings, made in the following year, were not issued for 14-15 years.

The music and Shorter’s playing are both disappointing after his first three albums. Even His compositions are weaker. On The Soothsayer, Hubbard, Tyner and Spaulding don’t fit well with Shorter’s approach. Etcetera is a quartet album with Hancock back on piano. Shorter’s compositions are still weak, but he does solo better here. His much freer soloing may have led to the decision not to issue. There is no definitive statement on the decision not to issue the two recordings right away.

The All-Seeing Eye

Taking advantage of a break from work with Miles Davis, who was ill for most of 1965, Shorter recorded another album four months later. The All-Seeing Eye was an ambitious: according to Nat Hentoff’s sleeve notes, it “depicts God looking over the universe before His creation.” However, I can’t connect any of the parts of this suite—“The All-Seeing Eye,” “Genesis,” “Chaos,” “Face of the Deep” and “Mephistopheles”—with the music. There are moments of great jazz: Hubbard’s solo on Genesis, for example. As well, Shorter’s playing is excellent; listen to his solo on “Chaos.” Although this album is fundamentally avant garde, it was, unlike The All-Seeing Eye, issued promptly.

Adam’s Apple

Four months later Shorter recorded another quartet album with Hancock, Workman and Chambers. This was soon after the notorious Miles Davis recordings at Plugged Nickel, where the music was very avant garde. But for Adam’s Apple, after two avant-garde albums of his own, Shorter changed direction, moving to more popular styles like funk, Latin and waltz—perhaps in an effort to improve sales. And with some superior compositions, especially “Footprints,” Shorter and his trio produced some of the best music so far—almost as good as Speak No Evil. The album starts poorly with a tedious funk title track that is not redeemed by Shorter’s playing. But after that all goes well: a superb rendering of Jimmy Rowles  “502 Blues” with a fine floating solo by Shorter and some perfect accompaniment by Hancock; a bossa Nova “El Gaucho” with a gentler Shorter (a great example of how Shorter keeps returning to the melody in his solo); a sublime “Footprints” with Hancock comping ¾ in Tyner’s “My Favorite Things” style; and a somewhat Getzian solo on the ballad “Teru.” Shorter is on top form here and clearly revels in the support from Hancock. He seems more assured than ever.

Schizophrenia

Just over a year later Shorter took a sextet into the studio, this time choosing Spaulding and Curtis Fuller to share the front line with him. The result was a very mixed bag of six tracks ranging from a funk-soul number (“Go”) to a delicate ballad (“Miyako”—not one of his best) to a free-jazz track (“Playground”). Shorter was clearly in touch with the current pop music trends and here anticipates the direction that Miles Davis was soon to take with Bitches Brew. But despite Shorter’s fine soloing and Hancock’s ever-fresh piano, this album is a disappointment, a hodge-podge of different styles. There is even a backwards movement to the old Blakey style (“Schizophrenia”).  The redeeming feature is Shorter’s own soloing; his tone has developed still further so that he is able to expand his “vocabulary” of sounds. His melodic improvisation is satisfying on all tracks except “Playground.” Amazingly he never plays a cliché and always stays close to the melody. His best solo is on “Go.”

Super Nova, Moto Grosso Feio and Odyssey of Iska 

Some major changes in Shorter’s music were evident just over two years after Schizophrenia, when he next recorded as a leader. Popular music in he late 60s was experiencing great changes that deeply influenced many jazz musicians, especially Miles Davis, Shorter’s regular leader at this time. Rock and roll and electrification appeared in jazz with increasing frequency.

Shorter’s music was no exception. While he avoided rock rhythms, he now radically changed his supporting instruments. Instead of the traditional rhythm section of piano, bass and drums, he began to use one or two electric guitars and up to three percussionists. At the same time he jettisoned the piano. The only other instrument he kept was the string bass. This new supporting unit still provided the polyrhythms that he liked to solo over—a responsibility that had previously been a drummer’s.

But the biggest change came from Shorter himself: he began to play the soprano saxophone. He had recently recorded on this instrument for Miles Davis’s In A Silent Way, but this was the first time his soprano was heard on one of this own albums. He took up the soprano to cope with the emerging trend of electronic music: “You cannot really move a melodic, a voice, as well with a lower-sounding instrument through all that heavy electronics.” He compared the soprano to a dolphin “coming from the bowels of the ocean, overcoming and shooting higher than the waves sometimes.” (Jazz Forum, 35) Shorter gave another reason to Leonard Feather: “I’m trying to get what you might call more of a sheer sound.” (Sleeve notes, Odyssey)

Thus on Super Nova his group is a septet—but with only himself up front as soloist. He uses two electric guitars (one on each channel), three percussionists and one bassist. He had always liked busy accompaniment, and this was now provided by an often continuous barrage of percussion over which Shorter floats supremely with his soprano. There is a jam-session feeling in this late-night recording with several musicians who had not appeared before on Shorter recordings.

The results on Super Nova are mixed. Shorter, as usual, is impressive not only with his sound but also with his soloing. His mastery of this new instrument enables him to express himself in many different and original ways. Indeed he never seems to repeat himself or to fall back on personal clichés. The majesty of his soprano sound is best heard on “Capricorn.” His softer ballad sound is brilliant on “Swee Pea.” But there’s also some less effective music on “Dindi” and “More than Human,” where everyone is playing hard but without much direction. Such music is fine on the first listening, but not on subsequent ones.

Moto Grosso Feio, although recorded in 1969, was not issued until 1974. It’s a tough listen as for most of the time Shorter and his two bassists, three percussionists and one guitarist play close to free jazz. I know that this album has its enthusiasts, but the music puts heavy demands on the listener. The opening of the title track is superb with a variety of colouring behind S’s mellow soprano, but then the music progresses into free jazz, where there is little harmonic base. The other four tracks develop in a similar way. Shorter seems to want to see how the music can move from a conventional melodic opening into total freedom that could be called frenzied. It must have been a fine experience for the musicians, but I can’t see many listeners wanting to replay this album often.

On Odyssey to Iska Shorter devotes one side to a tone poem in three sections: Wind, Storm and Calm. This music is more effective than his early tone poem on All-Seeing Eye. Shorter has more control here, with Bertoncini’s electric guitar skillfully holding the group (2 basses, 3 percussion) together. On the second side Shorter plays beautifully on a Latin-flavoured “De Pois do Amor,” sounding almost like an oboe on the lower register. However this track goes on too long. Based on a five-note riff, the final free track (“Joy”) uses the two basses effectively but the long track doesn’t keep interest. This album, above all shows the softer side of Shorter.

These three soprano albums do contain some fine music, but I think this foray into a freer and rhythm-based music is a dead-end. After these three recordings, Shorter went into a new phase of his career with the group Weather Report. He made only one recording under his own name in the next 15 years (Native Dancer). 

Conclusion

These eleven Wayne Shorter albums give some good insights into the direction Wayne Shorter was moving between 1964 and 1970. The first eight can be seen together as the main direction. Despite changes in personnel, he consistently composed two types of tunes: first, medium to up tempo compositions that extended the hard bop style harmonically and emotionally; second, gentle ballads. Gradually emerging in these albums was a more avant garde attitude, a growing interest in free jazz. However, this interest was usually kept in check. A major reason for this was that he never had a regular band at this time, so he had to provide a platform for the musicians to work together. Shorter explained the situation to Jazz Forum: “The Blue Note recordings were…like the ABCs of what I was doing. The compositions themselves had enough of a cell structure…. I was just like a satellite around the song, a satellite not going too far from the source. We just... played the changes, just improvised upon seeing something for the first time…. You could hear, they were making the changes, the harmonic changes to the story, making one chord lead to another as clear as they could ….”

However he could not contain his free-jazz interest forever. A major change occurred with his last three albums and a rejected recording session (1969-1970), where he allowed more free jazz. But after this, he stopped recording under his own name for 15 years. I suggest that he came to realize that recording free jazz was not commercially viable.

Note: To save space, not all personnel from the above recordings have been provided. There is an excellent Shorter discography at www.jazzdisco.org 

Recommended Buys:  Speak No Evil, Adam’s Apple.

Essence of Shorter’s Playing: Avoidance of clichés, originality, individual sound, facility, melodic improvisation

Best supporting musicians: Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones,

Best compositions: Virgo, Blue Nile, Fee-fi-fo-fum, Infant Eyes, Footprints, Yes and No