LT-1056

Wayne Shorter - Etcetera

Released - 1980

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 (aka Shairkhan The Tiger)
1611 tk.15 Toy Tune
1612 tk.20 Penelope
1613 tk.22 Etcetera

See Also: GXF-3059

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Etcetera	Wayne Shorter	June 14 1965
Penelope	Wayne Shorter	June 14 1965
Toy Tune	Wayne Shorter	June 14 1965
Side Two
Barracudas (General Assembly)	Gil Evans	June 14 1965
Indian Song	Wayne Shorter	June 14 1965

Liner Notes

Born August 25, 1933, Wayne Shorter did not pick up an instrument until he was sixteen when he started to play the clarinet to placate his father. A quick learner, he soon became fascinated with music and with the reed family, receiving a saxophone the next year. After graduating from the Newark High School of Music and Art, where he had majored in art and minored in music, he went to New York University, ultimately obtaining a degree in music education. It was during those early college years that the new music known as be-bop and most particularly the work of Thelonious Monk began to catch Wayne's ear and imagination. By the time he graduated in 1956, he was already sitting in with the likes of Donald Byrd and Horace Silver. 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 orchestra, which also included Slide Hampton and Joe Zawinul at that time. He made friends with John Coltrane, and the two would often get together in private to play and discuss concepts together. Trane and Lee Morgan were especially supportive of Shorter. Amiri Baraka (then Le Roi Jones) wrote a glowing, insightful profile of the man for Jazz Review, which was later reprinted in Jones' book Black Music. Trane in this same year was about to leave Miles and gave Wayne entree into the band. But fate delayed that alliance. Hank Mobley pulled a no show one night with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. The Ferguson band was in the same town, and Lee Morgan wasted no time in wooing Shorter onto Blakey's bandstand. He became saxophonist, composer and musical director for the Messengers until the summer of 1964. At that time, George Coleman had left the Miles Davis quintet, and Sam Rivers was the summer replacement in the saxophone spot. In September, when Rivers joined Andrew Hill, Shorter joined Miles, and the music took a beautiful turn. Despite the brilliant young rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, Miles' repertoire had grown stale. Miles realized that he needed fresh creative blood in the band. And Wayne Shorter filled the bill and turned the tide. The Music started to take more chances and foster more interaction. Suddenly everyone was composing new material for the band. Each succeeding album was a further document of their ever growing and ever creative minds, individually and collectively.

In their Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Jazz, Brian Case and Stan Britt wrote of Shorter 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 1 964, 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." Wayne's style may have been described early on as an amalgam of Rollins and Coltrane, but he was always totally his own man. History has shown that the similarities between Trane and Wayne were coincidental and simultaneous.

Wayne's use of space and cock-eyed rhythmic phrasing did approximate an aspect of Rollins' style, but again it was different and his own. Shorter, after a few early albums as a leader on Vee Jay and many sideman appearances on Vee Jay and Blue Note, signed with Blue Note in April, 1964. Within one year's time, he recorded Night Dreamer, Ju, Speak No Evil and the recently released Soothsayer. His fifth date of June 14, 1 965 was this quartet session, issued here for the first time. For this session and his next three albums. The All Seeing Eye, Adam's Apple, and Schizophrenia, the rhythm section would be built around Herbie Hancock and drummer Joe Chambers. Chambers, a Blue Note regular, first gained exposure on the New York scene with Freddie Hubbard's quintet. He worked frequently with Archie Shepp, Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson and Joe Henderson in the mid sixties and composed extensively for Hutcherson's albums. He has continued to pursue percussion and composition, adding the piano and the role of band leader to his activities in the seventies.

The bassist on this date is Cecil McBee, who had worked with Wayne on Grachan Moncur's outstanding Blue Note album Some Other Stuff. He would later work with Kenny Dorham, Sam Rivers, Pharaoh Sanders, Jackie McLean, Charles Lloyd and Woody Shaw, leading his own ensembles from time to time. Cecil is pliant and quick thinking with a full and rich sound, well suited to the darker side of Wayne's creations. 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 that tease the tune's melody. Herbie's amazing accompaniment provides an uncanny give-and-take between the two men. Chambers churns out an almost angry variation of the basic rock rhythm. The piano solo moves everywhere with both hands working independently. 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 reintroduced. Penelope joins Iris and Vonetta as women immortalized in ballad by Wayne. Ballad writing may be the most difficult of all forms to accomplish, yet Shorter's imagination seems unceasing in this area. Hancock takes the first solo here and is in an unusually spare and meditative state of mind.

Toy Tune is the kind of Shorter original that might have appeared in Miles' repertoire at the time. The tenor solo kicks off with a pinched variation of the theme and stays very much in the theme and variation mode of development. Herbie's solo is brighter and cheerfully lyrical. Barracudas is a lean line in 6/8 with a churning, yet suspended rhythmic feel. Also known as "General Assembly", this Gil Evans composition was written for the play "The Time Of The Barracudas." Wayne takes an outstanding solo with the rhythm section going wherever the saxophonist takes it. His delivery moves from jabbing to flowing, from somber to humorous. Hancock turns in a solid and exciting solo.

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

Wayne Shorter's current commitments to Weather Report in a collective capacity makes work under his leadership with extended playing all the more valuable. This date, allowed to sit on a shelf for too long, is another beautiful statement from one of the richest periods in this artist's life. As brilliant as his work with Blakey, Miles, Weather Report and VSOP has been, it is Shorter's Blue Note albums that give us the best and most complete picture of his genius.

- Michael Cuscuna