Wayne Shorter Legacy Celebration

“The greatest living composer in jazz” (The New York Times), saxophonist Wayne Shorter returns with his masterful working quartet including pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. Together, they celebrate the release of Shorter’s expansive new triple CD/LP Blue Note album and accompanying graphic novel, Emanon, which features live recordings and a studio session backed by the 34-piece Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In a legendary career spanning more than half a century that included monumental memberships in Miles Davis’ iconic 1960s quintet and the fusion superband Weather Report in addition to an incomparable path as a leader, the NEA Jazz Master, 2015 GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and 2018 Kennedy Center Honoree just keeps getting better and bolder.

Indeed, his longevity as a creative force isn’t as astounding as the fact that he’s spent the past decade leading his most prodigious and consequential band. At 84, Shorter often appears as the calm center of a roiling maelstrom, exulting in the improvisational lightning strikes emanating from Perez, Patitucci, and Blade, all virtuosos and bandleaders in their own right. Of course, the quartet is fueled by music from jazz’s most influential composer after Thelonious Monk, still keen to venture into uncharted territory. Shorter’s 2013 Blue Note album, Without a Net, was his first for the label in over four decades, netting a GRAMMY and DownBeat magazine Critics Poll wins for Jazz Album, Jazz Group, Soprano Saxophone and Jazz Artist of the Year. With the release of the Emanon, Shorter’s musical life continues its matchless trajectory, exploring new vistas as jazz’s greatest searcher.

Wayne Shorter, Jazz's Abstruse Elder, Isn't Done Innovating Yet (NY Times)