I’m sad to report that the musical giant Wayne Shorter, lyrical virtuoso of the tenor and soprano saxophone, has died at age 89.
Mr. Shorter first came to my attention as a member (along with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and Ron Carter) of Miles Davis’s incomparable 1960s quintet (which released a series of albums including Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, and Nefertiti, and for his work on later Miles albums such as Bitches’ Brew. (Shorter wrote some of the most hauntingly memorable compositions on those quintet albums, such as Footprints and Nefertiti.)
But as much as I loved his work with Miles Davis, it was the next chapter of his musical life that touched (and influenced) me most deeply: his work with the groundbreaking (and musically uncategorizable) ensemble Weather Report. Here’s a favorite of mine from those days, with a lovely solo by Shorter: Dream Clock, a song I used to rock my daughter Chloe to sleep with when she was a wee bairn.
I was lucky enough to meet Wayne Shorter exactly once, at the beginning of my professional record-making career, when one of my first assignments as an assistant engineer at Power Station was to work with engineer Niel Dorfsman on the eponymous album that Weather Report released in 1982. I was a huge fan of the band, and the experience was unforgettable. One thing that stood out for me was the contrast between the gigantic personalities of Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius, and Mr. Shorter’s quiet, beautiful spirit – a beauty that came through in every note he ever played, and all the music he wrote. He adorned this fallen world with his presence, and he will be missed.