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Wayne
Shorter Footprints: the Life and Music of Wayne Shorter Legacy—2004 Wayne Shorter’s sensual sax playing has been delighting listeners for over four decades, and culling these twenty-two tracks from his vast catalog must have been a bear. Especially considering that jazz artists often get a bum rap for broadening their horizons—fans of Shorter’s work with Miles Davis or Art Blakey may very well turn their noses up at his cuts with Weather Report or Steely Dan. |
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The primary reason
for this particular retrospective is that it is a companion piece to the
just-released Shorter bio of the same name, penned by Michelle Mercer for
Penguin Books. The material is split over two discs, with the first
offering traditional jazz stuff with Blakey (“Lester left Town”), Gil
Evans (“Time of the Barracudas”) and Davis (“Footprints,” “Nefertiti”),
before sliding into the fusion era with the classic “Sanctuary” from
Davis’ Bitches Brew and a couple of Weather Report cuts. Disc two
has more Weather Report and a stunning version of Milton Nascimento’s
“Ponta De Areia” from Shorter’s release Native Dancer. Although the
song has a Portuguese title, it has an Asian vibe that makes it the
perfect lead in to the next cut, Steely Dan’s “Aja.” Shorter also blew sax
on Joni Mitchell’s Charlie Mingus tribute, “Dry Cleaner From Des Moines,”
which is agreeably included here. The rest of the record is mostly made up
of cuts from Shorter’s solo work, with the exception of “In Walked Wayne”
from J.J. Johnson’s Heroes album. The compilation closes out with
an extended live take on the playful “Masquelero.” —Kevin Wierzbicki |
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