Wayne Shorter

他对当代爵士乐的贡献良多，包括萨克斯风演奏与作曲等，因此当人们提起了他，总是不知道该如何定位，甚至引起了莫名其妙的争辩。Wayne Shorter是科班出身的音乐人，受过完整的教育，当年鼓手Art Blakey就是看上这一点请他担任The Jazz Messengers的音乐总监；而Miles Davis则是看上了他演奏时的浓厚实验性而请他参加他的&经典二代五重奏&。
 
by Richard S. Ginell
 
Though some will argue about whether Wayne Shorters primary impact on jazz has been as a composer or as a saxophonist, hardly anyone will dispute his overall importance as one of jazzs leading figures over a long span of time. Though indebted to a great extent to John Coltrane, with whom he practiced in the mid-50s while still an undergraduate, Shorter eventually developed his own more succinct manner on tenor sax, retaining the tough tone quality and intensity and, in later years, adding an element of funk. On soprano, Shorter is almost another player entirely, his lovely tone shining like a light beam, his sensibilities attuned more to lyrical thoughts, his choice of notes becoming more spare as his career unfolded. Shorters influence as a player, stemming mainly from his achievements in the 1960s and 70s, has been tremendous upon the neo-bop brigade who emerged in the early 80s, most notably Branford Marsalis. As a composer, he is best known for carefully conceived, complex, long-limbed, endlessly winding tunes, many of which have become jazz standards yet have spawned few imitators.
 
Shorter started on the clarinet at 16 but switched to tenor sax before entering New York University in 1952. After graduating with a BME in 1956, he played with Horace Silver for a short time until he was drafted into the Army for two years. Once out of the service, he joined Maynard Fergusons band, meeting Fergusons pianist Joe Zawinul in the process. The following year (1959), Shorter joined Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers, where he remained until 1963, eventually becoming the bands music director. During the Blakey period, Shorter also made his debut on records as a leader, cutting several albums for Chicagos Vee-Jay label. After a few prior attempts to hire him away from Blakey, Miles Davis finally convinced Shorter to join his Quintet in September 1964, thus completing the lineup of a group whose biggest impact would leap-frog a generation into the 80s.
 
Staying with Miles until 1970, Shorter became at times the bands most prolific composer, contributing tunes like E.S.P., Pinocchio, Nefertiti, Sanctuary, Footprints, Fall and the signature description of Miles, Prince of Darkness. While playing through Miles transition from loose post-bop acoustic jazz into electronic jazz-rock, Shorter also took up the soprano in late 1968, an instrument which turned out to be more suited to riding above the new electronic timbres than the tenor. As a prolific solo artist for Blue Note during this period, Shorter expanded his palette from hard bop almost into the atonal avant-garde, with fascinating excursions into jazz/rock territory toward the turn of the decade.
 
In November 1970, Shorter teamed up with old cohort Joe Zawinul and Miroslav Vitous to form Weather Report, where after a fierce start, Shorters playing grew mellower, pithier, more consciously melodic, and gradually more subservient to Zawinuls concepts. By now, he was playing mostly on soprano, though the tenor would re-emerge more toward the end of WRs run. Shorters solo ambitions were mostly on hold during the WR days, resulting in but one atypical solo album, Native Dancer, an attractive side trip into Brazilian-American tropicalismo in tandem with Milton Nascimento. Shorter also revisited the past in the late 70s by touring with Freddie Hubbard and ex-Miles sidemen Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams as V.S.O.P.
 
Shorter finally left Weather Report in 1985, but promptly went into a creative slump. Still committed to electronics and fusion, his recorded compositions from this point became more predictable and labored, saddled with leaden rhythm sections and overly complicated arrangements. After three routine Columbia albums during 1986-1988, and a tour with Santana, he lapsed into silence, finally emerging in 1992 with Wallace Roney and the V.S.O.P. rhythm section in the A Tribute to Miles band. In 1994, now on Verve, Shorter released High Life, a somewhat more engaging collaboration with keyboardist Rachel Z.
 
In concert, he has fielded an erratic series of bands, which could be incoherent one year (1995), and lean and fit the next (1996). He guested on the Rolling Stones Bridges to Babylon in 1997, and on Herbie Hancocks Gershwins World in 1998. In 2001, he was back with Hancock for Future 2 Future and on Marcus Millers M². Footprints Live! was released in 2002 under his own name, followed by Alegría in 2003 and Beyond the Sound Barrier in 2005. Given his long track record, Shorters every record and appearance are still eagerly awaited by fans in the hope that he will thrill them again. Blue Note Records released Blue Notes Great Sessions: Wayne Shorter in 2006.