GXF-3059

Wayne Shorter - The Collector

Released - 1979

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, June 14, 1965
Wayne Shorter, tenor sax; Herbie Hancock, piano; Cecil McBee, bass; Joe Chambers, drums.

1609 tk.3 Barracudas
1610 tk.7 Indian Song
1612 tk.20 Penelope
1613 tk.22 Etcetera

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 24, 1966
Wayne Shorter, tenor sax; Herbie Hancock, piano; Reginald Workman, bass; Joe Chambers, drums.

1705 tk.22 The Collector

See Also: LT-1056

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
The Collector	Herbie Hancock	February 24 1966
Penelope	Wayne Shorter	June 14 1965
Etcetera	Wayne Shorter	June 14 1965
Side Two
Barracudas	Wayne Shorter	June 14 1965
Indian Song	Wayne Shorter	June 14 1965

Liner Notes

Born on August 25, 1933. Wayne Shorter did not pick up an instrument until he was sixteen when he started the clarinet. A quick learner, fascinated with the reed family, he received a saxophone the next year. After graduating from the Newark High School of Music And Art where he majored in art and minored in music, he went to New York University, ultimately getting a degree in music education.

It was during those early college years in New York that the new music known as be-bop began to catch his ear. By the time he graduated in 1956, he was sitting in with Donald Byrd and Horace Silver among others. The US Army took the next two years of his life.

By 1959, Shorter was a composer and arranger and saxophonist to be reckoned with. He had secured a chair in Maynard Ferguson's band, which had at the time Slide Hampton and Joe Zawinul. He had made friends with John Coltrane and would often getting together to make music together. Trane and Lee Morgan were very supportive. LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) wrote a glowing, insightful profile of Shorter for Jazz Review (that article was later included in his book "Black Music"). Trane was about to leave Miles and gave Wayne entree into the band.

But Hank Mobley pulled a no-show one night with the Jazz Messengers and Lee Morgan wasted no time getting Wayne into Blakey's band, for which he was saxophonist and music director until the summer of 1964. At that point, George Coleman had left Miles' group and Sam Rivers was the replacement for that summer. By the Fall, Miles had hired Wayne Shorter, and the music took a beautiful turn.

Despite the brilliant young rhythm section of Herbie Hancock. Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, Miles' repetoire had grown stale. George Coleman's conventional approach might have had something to do with it, but there was no mistaking that Shorter's joining turned the tide. The music dared to walk closer to the edge. Suddenly everyone was composing new compositions for the band. Each album was a further document to their ever-growing and ever-creative minds, both collectively and individually. In their "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz", Brian Case and Stan Britt write accurately that while with Blakey, 'his tenor was a personal amalgam of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, a coarse-toned and unbelievably savage rip-saw, playing weird, asymmetrical lines. It was a little like being knocked down by a chess player. In 1964, he joined Miles Davis and his style changed. He wrote meticulously precise structures, often modal, that swivelled and snaked... densely plaited unison statements that prowl like a wolfpack".

There were those who deafly wrote Shorter off as a Trane disciple, but history has shown their similarities to be coincidental and simultaneous. Wayne's use of space and cock-eyed rhythmic phrasing, also completely his own, logically drew a few perceptive comparisons to Rollins. But Wayne Shorter as a saxophonist and even more strikingly as a composer was always his own man.

Shorter, after a few early albums as leader on Vee Jay and many sideman appearances on Vee Jay and Blue Note albums, signed with Blue Note in 1964. All but one selection on this record come from a quartet session on June 14, 1965. For this and his next three Blue Note albums ("AII Seeing Eye", "Adam's Apple" and '"Schizophrenia"). the rhythm section would be built around Herbie Hancock on piano and Joe Chambers on drums. Cecil McBee had worked with Wayne on Grachan Moncur's incredible Blue Note album "Some Other Stuff".

The title tune, a Herbie Hancock piece, comes from the February 24, 1966 session that produced most of Wayne's "Adam's Apple" album. It is compositionally representative of the style of writing being done in Miles Davis' quintet of the time. Shorter and Hancock rise and fall beautifully in intensity throughout their very inventive solos. Reggie Workman and Joe Chambers are always there. In fact, it seems at time as if Joe is almost conducting from the drum stool. Reggie gets off a strong and vibrant solo that highlights his gorgeous tone. The drummer takes a brief, but effective solo before bringing the band back in.

Moving back to the earlier session with Cecil McBee in the bass chair, we have a characteristically beautiful Shorter ballad 'Penelope" Herbie Hancock takes the first solo and is in an unusually spare and meditative state of mind.

"Etcetera" is an insistent. haunting melody like much of Shorter's writing. The rhythm section makes great use of space and surprise in the dark, turbulent theme that grows in depth and intensity as the solos unfold. Hancock's deep pedal tones are jabbing and foreboding. Wayne's solo begins with fragmented phrases as he teases the tune's melody. Hancock's amazing accompaniment provides an uncanny give-and-take between the two men. Chambers churns out an almost angry variation of rock rhythm. Herbie's solo moves everywhere with both hands working indepenently. Cecil's accompaniment, beginning with insistent double stops, is sensitive and astonishing in execution. Chambers weaves a moody, melodic drum solo before the theme is re-introduced.

"Barracudas" is a lean Shorter line in 6/8 with a churning, yet suspended rhythmic feel. Shorter turns in a great solo with the rhythm section going wherever the saxophonist takes it. His delivery moves from jabbing to flowing, from somber to humorous. Hancock pulls off a solid, exciting solo.

"Indian Song" has to be one of the most cooking example of 5/4 time to date. It is set up with Chambers and Hancock swinging with an irrestible gliding pulse against Cecil McBee's recurring bass line. Shorter's melody unfolds in three very unpredictable sections. The quartet creates a strangely atmospheric, yet burning performance. The tenor saxophone solo becomes almost a sax and piano duet with Hancock's empathetic contributions behind Wayne. And his piano solo is equally inspired with Chambers gracefully soloing under the first section, relying on McBee's bass line to anchor the proceedings. McBee gets his one solo of the date, rich in techniques and ideas.

This is yet another important session in the career of Wayne Shorter that had been allowed to sit on a shelf for far too long. His current preoccupation with Weather Report in a collective capacity makes his solo work all the more valuable.

— Michael Cuscuna

Original sessions produced by ALFRED LION
Produced for release by MICHAEL CUSCUNA
Recording engineer: VAN VAN GELDER STUDIOS. NEW JERSEY
Remix engineer: TONY SESTANOVICH
THE COLLECTOR recorded on February 24, 1966
Other tunes recorded on June 14, 1965