..... concert recorded on 2012 November 3rd at La Salle Pleyel, Paris. Wayne Shorter - saxophones, John Patitucci - upright bass, Danilo Perez - piano, Brian Blade - drums.
I was listening to this last night and trying to jam along wondering yet again will I ever see Wayne live, as I have been wondering since getting hooked on Weather Report when I was a kid, devastating to hear this news today. We were lucky to share some of our time with such talent. R.I.P. Maestro.
This is, indeed, a very sad day. I've been listening to Weather Report since the early 70's and they've been my favorite band all these years. Going to listen to them all day tomorrow, in memory of Wayne.
02:47 - Zero Gravity/Lotus 26:47 - Prometheus Unbound 42:26 - She Moves Through The Fair 51:50 - Plaza real 01:00:29 - Starry Night 01:27:39 - Joy Ryder
Thank you, Mr. Carter, for decades of great music. You're a living legend yourself. I won't forget attending the "VSOP" Tribute to Miles concerts back in the 90's (yourself with Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Wallace Roney, and Herbie Hancock). Wayne Shorter will be missed.
music that comes from the past , the present and the future a music that transcends any physical element , and transports the natural feelings elsewhere Wayne Shorter for me is the greatest composer in jazz history r.
The Quartet is just so brilliant in how they create music no one could have ever imagined being in the realm of possibilities. Such beautiful masterpieces they have created...
Shorter has been interested in space and physics. It isn’t always ripping. And I love that about him. I think Zero Gravity is subtle and gorgeous. Didn’t know he ever played with Patitucci. Amazing really!
jazz goes wer it wants. n if u dont see how influential this is for us players (no matter what kind u play) then mayb u need listen with a little more of an open mind.
Joel Stewart im not talking about the music of wayne Im talking about the other forms of jazz u claim wer supposed to go in this direction. My point is that they went with Wayne in their own way u jus have to have an open mind n ear to hear it
Possibly the best version of Starry Night ever. From 1.20 onwards his playing is unreal and almost a spiritual experience. Nobody can touch Wayne in this form. Absolutely brilliant band also.
Next friday evenin' in Piedmont Italy. A dear friend of mine and me will talk about Wayne and, most important, will show to some other friends many clips and videos of this great musician: from the Jazz Messengers to his last astonishing fine acustic quartet. Stay Tuned
I would love to see the charts they use for these gigs. The melodies almost always seem to come from Wayne's older compositions, although often fairly altered, but I'd love to know how much of the form is improvised and how much is prepared. I know they don't rehearse (he's famously quoted as saying 'How do you rehearse the unknown?') but there does seem to be an underlying level of composition. If you listen to tunes like Pegasus, on Without A Net, then you can hear several pre-prepared sections (almost like vamped repeat sections!), that create the form in a way that still sounds very improvised. Similarly with the harmony: so much of it is quite out, making it hard to tell whether they actually have some tonal centres. I guess they most clearly do where there is a repeated bass riff, although similarly I don't know how often they're prepared. Could anyone shed any light on any of this?
A good case study is their first album, "Footprints Live." Almost all of those songs are versions of songs Shorter recorded earlier, so if you are familiar with those songs you can hear the way they change and stay the same. For example, they keep the form to "Footprints" fairly consistent and then eventually seque into a vamp of the turnaround (F#m7b5 B7 Em7b5 A7). A lot of the newer songs on the later recordings seem to be based on short vamps. On this video it sounds like they're really stretching out though, probably because they had a full 90 minute set to see where things go.
"Masquelero" from "Footprints Live" is another good example of a tune where they superimpose various ostinato figures over a recurring form. Listen to some of the earlier Miles versions of that tune to get a feel for the form and then check out what this quartet does to it. I've been super into this band lately so I hope some of these observations are helpful to you!
Thanks, that's helpful. Yeah - I have Footprints Live and on a couple of the tunes I find it fairly obvious what they've done, but I guess what I really wonder is whether they have these vamps and stuff pre-written or whether they are spontaneous. I know how much Shorter is into his extended compositions so it would make sense for him to write in that way, but there are some moments when watching it live that just seem to come out the blue, even for the band.
There is a written structure on which they move, this is deduced from the precise score. If you see, Patitucci's interventions, they are all precise. But ... they wrote only the structure and tonality .. but not the notes that will go to perform .. then everything is improvised on a structure studied .. written before .. other is pure invention of the ... fleeting moment.
Yes, he does say, "FOR ME is the greatest composer," so he's saying it as his opinion--but it's still a silly statement to me. Why not just say he's your favorite? There's too much talk of "the greatest" this or that in jazz. Who's to say who is "the greatest" jazz pianist or saxophonist, when it's not even clear by what criteria we might make such a judgment?
