Saxophonist Wayne Shorter, a jazz great, has died

In music, saxophonist Wayne Shorter had several lives, all interwoven with jazz in its various modalities, but always with a characteristic stamp: his solos guided by the instinct of improvisation, without overpowering, with a special cadence that created an atmosphere above the path of his fingers. Still active until a few years ago, with outstanding concerts and constant entry into the recording studio, he won a Grammy in this last edition (2023) in the category of the best improvised jazz solo for his song Endangered species.

This time he was competing with young musicians, bright stars of major publishing houses, such as Melissa Aldana, who recognized Shorter’s influence on her style in an interview with this newspaper. i like her Whole generations had it as a reference saxophone and jazz, together with greats such as Lou Donaldson, Trane or Charlie Parker. Both in his way of composing and in his playing, Shorter is one of the most important jazz saxophonists of all time, comparable to Ben Wester, Sonny Rollings or Lester Young.

In these mature years – and there are few cases where such a thing can be affirmed, coming from where Shorter came from – there are also many of his best concerts The shorter one broke into the club scene with a lucky star. Born in New Jersey (USA) in 1933, he joined the Messengers of Art Blakey at the age of 25, until then a legendary drummer and recognized talent discoverer. He made a career with Blakey until he joined one of Miles Davis’ quintets, another idol who knew how to feed on the new juice that entered the circuit. Neither Blakey nor Davis were wrong in their judgments. And Shorter did not disappoint the great trumpeter, the inventor of genres and always in the front rows.

It was in 1964, when he made that jump. More than others, he resisted the maestro’s outbursts and five years later recorded magnificent works quiet way and Bitches Brewboth within the fusion movement. He, like a soprano saxophone. In the training he underwent, he coincided with geniuses such as Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter, two other legendary figures who are still alive and active, with whom Shorter, from his official Instagram account, exchanged hearts. The saxophonist, damaged but vital, with a big smile, sent his last message in December. I wished you a merry Christmas. He died this Thursday in a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 89 years old.

wayne’s footprints

However, if there was one thing Shorter wanted to do, as he would show on every tape of his career, it was this Follow that Davis thirst for innovation. As usual at that time, the best talents met in the studios, in quartets and quintets, and in a few days each one came out with an album as a leader. So Shorter recorded albums in which he appears as the leader in titles such as presenting or another genesis. With the projection Davis concluded, he signed with Blue Note, a determined record company, and by the 1970s had given them eleven LPs as JuJu or schizophrenia. Since that decade he has played with different music labels, with titles like Atlantis, Life on high or 1+1 with Hancock; until the return, as if closing the circle, on a blue note, in 2018 with emanon.

WITH 23 Grammy nominations and 12 awards, several medals and honors, Shorter also had in his curriculum since he belonged to another great group of revolutionary calling, of which he was a member for 15 years: Weather Report, through which musicians such as Jaco Pastorius passed. In those years, he collaborated with bands like the Rolling Stones and took part in Mingus, Davis or Franklin tributes.

Increasingly devoted to collaborations with large doses of improvisation and freedom, Shorter, who had already passed through be bop and hard jazz, preferred playing with pianists such as Danilo Pérez, who had been his regular since 2000 and with whom he held his last tours ( with Patitucci as the deluxe double bassist in that quartet). They rocked the stage with topics like footprints. And he recorded live with Leo Genovese, with whom he took that last trophy, ever closer to full freedom, and free jazz within the patterns and standards that he dictated and that others followed.