Damn damn damn.
Wayne Shorter, saxophonist possibly best known for playing in Weather Report
has died aged 89.
Seen here with Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke & Omar Hakim :-
Probably best known for playing with Miles Davis in the 60s.
I agree, damn.
I saw Weather Report in 1980 with a crowd of about 1,000. Pretty awesome. Sad to see him pass.
I’m a little too young to associate him with Miles Davis so it’s his Weather Report era that resonates. Their blend of jazz fusion was epochal.
First heard him on ‘Miles Smiles’, and then discovered he’d written ‘Dolores’. He’s been a constant in my headphones ever since…
He was a wonderful musician, and played with lots of people. 'ol Miles had an ear for talent. Bill Evans also played piano with him.
Yeah, there was a guy called John Coltrane too.
Oof. Big fan - almost ever part of his career was interesting. I was listening to his solo album Juju just last month.
ETA; Oops, that was actually Jules Broussard on the track I originally linked. Apologies to both Wayne and Jules.
Well, hell. What a composer. His 1960s albums are indispensable. All of these tunes are immortal and burned into my brain forever:
Many many guest appearances, including the awesome solo on Steely Dan’s Aja.
I’m still trying to figure out why I thought Wayne Shorter played piano? I must not even know who he is, which is odd because I listen to a lot of jazz. Or I did, until I moved to areas that had no FM jazz stations. I checked, and there is nothing on him here in my jazz collection. It’s full of New Orleans jazz musicians, and people like Monk, O’Day, Evans, Holiday or Coltrane.
In any case, it’s sad when anyone in music dies, they’ve been dropping like flies lately.
I think Shorter replaced Coltrane with Miles Davis, somewhere around 1960 perhaps. In any case I think they crossed paths and likely played together at some point. Shorter’s recording credits are so extensive it’s hard to imagine who he hadn’t played with.
He was popular with the jazz crowd during the 60’s (even late 50’s), but his star really took off when he formed Weather Report with Joe Zawinal, who he’d played with in M Davis’ band.
Featured on several of Joni Mitchell’s later releases as well.