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

GXF-3054

Wayne Shorter - The Soothsayer

Released - 1979

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, March 4, 1965
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; James Spaulding, alto sax; Wayne Shorter, tenor sax; McCoy Tyner, piano; Reggie Workman, bass; Tony Williams, drums.

1531 tk.11 Lost
1532 tk.12 Valse Triste
1533 tk.14 The Big Push
1534 tk.17 The Soothsayer
1535 tk.20 Lady Day
1530 tk.22 Angola

See Also: LT-988

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Lost	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
Angola	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
The Big Push	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
Side Two
The Soothsayer	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
Lady Day	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
Valse Triste	Jean Sibelius	March 4 1965

Liner Notes

Of the eight "straight ahead" recording sessions that Wayne Shorter made for Blue Note from 1964 to 1967, only three featured a front line that extended beyond the quartet or quintet format. This date, recorded on March 4, 1965 and released here for the first time, features James Spaulding and Freddie Hubbard. "The All Seeing Eye", recorded in October of the same year, added trombonist Grachan Moncur to the Shorter-Spaulding-Hubbard line. Finally, "Schizophrenia" from March 10, 1967, which was Wayne's last pure date, offered Spaulding and trombonist Curtis Fuller.

Considering that Shorter's first major gig found him arranging and composing for the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra, that he arranged a beautiful set of orchestra and septet charts for Freddie Hubbard's '"The Body And The Soul" (Impulse) and that his final three years with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers sported a rich sounding three horn front line, it is curious that he did not delve further into this aspect of his remarkable talents on his own sessions.

Another very special aspect of this album is the presence of Tony Williams. While it may seem logical for him to be in this group becuase he and Shorter were members of the Miles Davis quintet of that day. it is interesting to note that the three preceding Shorter dates had Elvin Jones and the four following had Joe Chambers. It is especially enlightening to hear the Williams of this period work with McCoy Tyner. To my knowledge, they never recorded together again until McCoy's somewhat contrived "Supertrios" album in 1977. But in 1965, their realms were a great deal closer.

James Spaulding, the unsung hero of Blue Note in the sixties, was introduced to the label sharing the fron line in Freddie Hubbard's quintet. He appeared over the years on sessions by Bobby Hutcherson, Grant Green, Horace Silver and many others. Originally from Indianapolis, Spaulding first made his presence felt in several fine editions of Sun Ra's orchestra in Chicago in the late fifties. upon coming to New York, he was not only a regular at Blue Note sessions, but also worked in Hubbard's first working band, with Randy Weston and for the last half of the sixties with Max Roach's ensemble. During the seventies, he has been seen all too infrequently, recording his own album for Sonet in Scandinavia and appearing on discs by Kenny Barron and Woody Shaw among others.

Freddie Hubbard, who had appeared on Wayne's previous date "Spead No Evil" and would participate on the next one "The All Seeing Eve", worked side by side with the tenor saxophonist in Blakey's band from the fall of 1961 until March of 1964. Wayne and Freddie would, of course, work together again with the creation of V.S.O.P. in 1976 with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams.

Ron Carter's supple, strong presence was felt on "Speak No Evil", '*The All Seeing Eye" and *'Schizophrenia". He and Wayne were band mates in the Miles Davis quintet and appeared together on such fine Blue Note dates as Lee Morgan's "The Procrastinator" and McCoy Tyner's '*Expansions".

McCoy in his six years with the John Coltrane Quartet gave birth to a unique new approach to the piano and, with Trane, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison, helped to redefine the basic sound of a jazz ensemble. He was present on Wayne's first two Blue Note albums "Ju Ju" and *'Night Dreamer". Wayne's spare, dry approach allowed a variety of nuances, unseen elsewhere, to appear in McCoy's playing.

Lost is a graceful, medium tempo original in triple meter with solos by Shorter, Hubbard. Spaulding and Tyner. This version having never been issued, Shorter resurrected it for Weather Report's Live In Tokyo recording.

Angola is the kind of medium-up cooker that Wayne might have brought into Art Blakey's band. After spirited solos from the three hornmen, Tony Williams gets off an inventive drum solo.

Although the melody line of The Big Push is rhythmically unusual, the solos by Shorter, Hubbard, Spaulding and McCoy flow in straight four. Wayne's solo entrance is arresting and wry as he playfully and creatively juggles a simple two not motif and weaves into a full blown solo.

The Soothsayer is a burning, delightful descending line that engenders the kind of fire that makes Spaulding fly. He and Wayne steal the show here. Shorter launches his flight with those fragmented, punctuated lines that were a trademark of his playing in the sixties.

Shorter has always been a master composer of ballads. And his tribute to Billie Holiday Lady Day is no exception. He gives an unbelievable reading that is set off by a lovely, lyrical piano solo from Tyner.

A year and half before the this session. Wayne had recorded his own Dance Cadaverous (on Speak No Evil) and credited the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' Valse Triste as an inspirational source point. Here he arranges Sibelius' own music for the sextet with solos from all except Williams.

Coincidentally, this ensemble is VSOP with McCoy in place of Hancock and with Spaulding added. But this was no planned all-star reunion. This was merely the music of the period played unselfconsciously by the musicians who were playing it best.

— Michael Cuscuna

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

LT-988

Wayne Shorter - The Soothsayer

Released - 1979

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, March 4, 1965
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; James Spaulding, alto sax; Wayne Shorter, tenor sax; McCoy Tyner, piano; Reggie Workman, bass; Tony Williams, drums.

1531 tk.11 Lost
1532 tk.12 Valse Triste
1533 tk.14 The Big Push
1534 tk.17 The Soothsayer
1535 tk.20 Lady Day
1530 tk.22 Angola

See Also: GXF-3054

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Lost	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
Angola	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
The Big Push	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
Side Two
The Soothsayer	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
Lady Day	Wayne Shorter	March 4 1965
Valse Triste	Jean Sibelius	March 4 1965

Valse Triste attributed to Berlioz on label

Liner Notes

WAYNE SHORTER

Of the eight "straight ahead" recording sessions that Wayne Shorter made for Blue Note from 1964 to 1967, only three featured a front line that extended beyond the quartet or quintet format. This date, recorded on March 4, 1965 and released here for the first time, features James Spaulding and Freddie Hubbard. "The All Seeing Eye', recorded in October of the same year, added trombonist Grachan Moncur to the Shorter-Spaulding-Hubbard line. Finally, "Schizophrenia" from March 10, 1967, which was Wayne's last pure date, offered Spaulding and trombonist Curtis Fuller.

Considering that Shorter's first major gig found him arranging and composing for the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra, that he arranged a beautiful set of orchestra and septet charts for Freddie Hubbard's "The Body And The Soul" (Impulse) and that his final three years with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers sported a rich sounding three horn front line, it is curious that he did not delve further into this aspect of his remarkable talents on his own sessions.

Another very special aspect of this album is the presence of Tony Williams. While it may seem logical for him to be in this group because he and Shorter were members of the Miles Davis quintet of that day, it is interesting to note that the three preceding Shorter dates had Elvin Jones and the four following had Joe Chambers. It is especially enlightening to hear the Williams of this period work with McCoy Tyner. To my knowledge, they never recorded together again until McCoy's somewhat contrived "Supertrios" album in 1977. But in 1965, their realms were a great deal closer.

James Spaulding, the unsung hero of Blue Note in the sixties, was introduced to the label sharing the front line in Freddie Hubbard's quintet. He appeared over the years on sessions by Bobby Hutcherson, Grant Green, Horace Silver and many others. Orginally from Indianapolis, Spaulding first made his presence felt in several fine editions of Sun Ra's orchestra in Chicago in the late fifties. Upon coming to New York, he was not only a regular at Blue Note sessions, but also worked in Hubbard's first working band, with Randy Weston and for the last half of the sixties with Max Roach's ensemble. During the seventies, he has been seen all too infrequently, recording his own album for Sonet in Scandinavia and appearing on discs by Kenny Barron and Woody Shaw among others.

Freddie Hubbard, who had appeared on Wayne's previous date "Speak No Evil" and would participate on the next one "The All Seeing Eye," worked side by side with the tenor saxophonist in Blakey's band from the fall of 1961 until March of 1964. Wayne and Freddie would, of course, work together again with the creation of V.S.O.P in 1976 with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams.

Ron Carter's supple, strong presence was felt on "Speak No Evil," "The All Seeing Eye" and "Schizophrenia." He and Wayne were band mates in the Miles Davis quintet and appeared together on such fine Blue Note dates as Lee Morgan's "The Procrastinator" and McCoy Tyner's Expansions."

McCoy in his six years with the John Coltrane Quartet gave birth to a unique new approach to the piano and, with Trane, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison, helped to redefine the basic sound of a jazz ensemble. He was present on Wayne's first two Blue Note albums "Ju Ju" and Night Dreamer'.' Wayne's spare, dry approach allowed a variety of nuances, unseen elsewhere, to appear in McCoy's playing.

Lost is a graceful, medium tempo original in triple meter with solos by Shorter, Hubbard, Spaulding and Tyner. This version having never been issued, Shorter resurrected it for Weather Report's Live In Tokyo recording.

Angola is the kind of medium-up cooker that Wayne might have brought into Art Blakey's band. After spirited solos from the three hornmen, Tony Williams gets off an inventive drum solo.

Although the melody line of The Big Push is rhythmically unusual, the solos by Shorter, Hubbard, Spaulding and McCoy flow in straight four. Wayne's solo entrance is arresting and wry as he playfully and creatively juggles a simple two note motif and weaves into a full blown solo.

The Soothsayer is a burning, delightful descending line that engenders the kind of fire that makes Spaulding fly. He and Wayne steal the show here. Shorter launches his flight with those fragmented, punctuated lines that were a trademark of his playing in the sixties.

Shorter has always been a master composer of ballads. And his tribute to Billie Holiday Lady Day is no exception. He gives an unbelievable reading that is set off by a lovely, lyrical piano solo from Tyner.

A year and a half before the session, Wayne had recorded his own Dance Cadaverous (on Speak No Evil) and credited the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' Valse Triste as an inspirational source point. Here he arranges Sibelius' own music for the sextet with solos from all except Williams.

Coincidentally, this ensemble is VSOP with McCoy in place of Hancock and with Spaulding added. But this was no planned all-star reunion. This was merely the music of the period played unselfconsciously by the musicians who were playing it best.

-Michael Cuscuna

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT THE SOOTHSAYER

The mid-sixties were an incredibly creative period for Wayne Shorter. His playing and writing for both the Miles Davis Quintet and his own Blue Note albums form a body of work comparable to the best of both the straight-ahead and the freedom schools he straddled with such singular imagination. It was perhaps inevitable that Blue Note would find itself unable to issue all of his recordings at the time of their creation, and a cause for celebration when his "missing" sessions, The Soothsayer and Et Cetera, finally appeared in 1980. The Soothsayer was particularly welcomed for a reason that Michael Cuscuna highlights in his original liner notes — the rare presence of drummer Tony Williams.

Williams was another member of Davis's band of the period, though a relatively reticent one when it came to recording. He had a Blue Note contract, like Shorter and Herbie Hancock, but only dabbled in composition at this point, and only cut two albums for the label. Neither did he feel compelled, like Hancock and Davis bassist Ron Carter, to supplement his income by becoming a first-call studio player.

"The group that I was with, with Miles, was so great, everything else to me was — there was nothing that I had any desire to be a part of," Williams told Pat Cox in a 1970 Down Beat interview. "People had asked me to make records with them and I had to turn them down because I didn't want to make records just for the sake of making records...I had already done what these guys were doing, was on top of what was going to happen, so that after that, when they asked me again, I said, 'I've already made a record with you."'

Fortunately, Williams did not feel that way about Wayne Shorter. In the same interview, he explained why horns were omitted from his Lifetime band by noting, "I could find no saxophone player that I liked as much and who had as broad a scope as Wayne Shorter." So Williams had no compunction about pairing up more than once with the saxophonist outside of the Davis group, as he did at Blue Note on Grachan Moncur's Some Other Stuff and his own Spring, as well as on the present tracks.

Shorter surrounds himself with other sympathetic partners here as well: Ron Carter, another Davis colleague; McCoy Tyner, making the last of three sideman appearances with Shorter that would be reciprocated when the saxophonist was featured on Tyner's Expansions and Extensions at decade's end; and the Indianapolis twin terrors, Freddie Hubbard and James Spaulding. The alto saxophonist is absolutely explosive throughout, threatening to steal the show, and clearly impressive enough to earn inclusion in other Shorter projects where a second saxophone was required.

That said, it is hard to eclipse the leader on a Wayne Shorter album. His joint prowess as player and writer, and his blend of the traditional and the visionary, are simply too exceptional to take a back seat to anyone. The music here is a case in point. On the surface, Shorter's five compositions appear relatively conventional next to the more open forms of The All Seeing Eye or the mysterious themes he was beginning to contribute to the Davis group. The structures look familiar and are easy to parse. "The Big Push," for instance, is a 24-bar, AAB line, with modulations where one would expect to find them in a blues chorus. Yet "The Big Push" is hardly a long-metered blues in the manner of Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder." The harmonic motion, combined with the rhythmic trajectory of the melody, lead the musicians in other directions. You can't just blow reharmonized blues choruses on the form and make much sense. One has to treat "The Big Push" as a thing unto itself, which is a part of Shorter's genius. Another part involves how he takes the possibilities of the forms even farther as he improvises. Hubbard, Spaulding, and Tyner, all first-class players, may not be intimidated by the challenges of the music, but none of them are able to play out the implications as fully as Shorter himself.

Since Shorter's compositional output for Davis and his own sessions tended to run in separate courses, the belated issue of The Soothsayer would have been welcome if only for its introduction of unheard Shorter originals, of which the most memorable are "Angola" (the faster master take was probably chosen for time rather than quality considerations), "The Big Push," and "Lady Day," a haunting ballad in the vein of "Infant Eyes."

— Bob Blumenthal, 2007

BN-LA-014-G

Wayne Shorter - Moto Grosso Feio

Released - August 1974

Recording and Session Information

A&R Studios, NYC, April 3, 1970
Wayne Shorter, soprano, tenor sax; Dave Holland, acoustic guitar, bass; John McLaughlin, 12-string guitar; Miroslav Vitous, bass; Ron Carter, bass, cello; Chick Corea, drums, marimba, percussion; Michelin Prell, drums, percussion.

6122 tk.4 Moto Grosso Feio
6123 tk.7 Antiqua
6124 tk.9 Vera Cruz
6125 tk.12 Iska
6126 tk.14 Montezuma

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Moto Grosso Feio	Wayne Shorter	April 3 1970
Montezuma	Wayne Shorter	April 3 1970
Side Two
Antigua	Wayne Shorter	April 3 1970
Vera Cruz	Milton Nascimento	April 3 1970
Iska	Wayne Shorter	April 3 1970

Liner Notes

Everybody felt like acting, playing a part other than themselves. In keeping with the jungle atmosphere they were trying to create, each master musician remarked of the unique freedom of this session. The names are familiar. Dave Holland had just left Miles Davis' band, and John McLaughlin had recently parted with Tony Williams. Chick Corea was in a transitional period, as was Miroslav Vituous. The drums and percussion were to be handled by Michelin Prell, a nineteen-year-old Belgian prodigy whom Shorter had known since her infancy.

Not only was this gathering a first of its kind, but nobody played the instruments they were known for. McLaughlin favored a 12-string acoustic guitar over his electric arsenal. Holland, a superb bassist, also picked up an acoustic guitar. Ron Carter played the cello. There were to be no keyboard instruments. Chick Corea found himself a set of marimbas. He claimed he wanted to capture the sound of apes and wild animals cavorting through the jungle trees.

Shorter's main theme, entitled "Moto Grosso Feio," refers to a Brazilian Amazon jungle in which, Shorter reports, nine nuns disappeared and were neved found. It is a lush, enticing narcotic paradise - attractive and deadly.

"I feel Spanish today", remarked John McLaughlin. He proceeded to initiate the first theme of "Moto Grosso Feio" with what Shorter calls a "Mediterranean" mood-classical and Spanish, but unmistakably McLaughlin. The mood presented is one of a jungle sunrise. At first all is still but the light of the sun. Slowly the day begins with the tentative sounds of the birds and animals. Life sprouts in the jungle like a flower.

Mood is actually what this music is all about. With the lush setting in mind, the musicians employ a variety of dramatic colorings - all played on acoustic instruments - to produce a sort of soundtrack whereby the listener can also experience the sights, sounds, smells and instincts, the poisonous beauty of "Moto Grosso Feio."

In this music, as in a jungle, lives the frantic and split-second alongside the moody and relaxed. As the mother lion basks contentedly in the sun, madcap monkeys dart through the trees overhead, and a blood-hungry jaguar waits for his prey in the nearby bushes. The musicians capture this variety of moods and intensities, as Wayne Shorter's soprano sax explodes languidly over a McLaughlin one-note machine-gun rhythm. One is usually not heard with the other. Percussion drifts into the mix, building nervously until one is caught up in a flurry of drums and the peaceful jungle transforms into a dark, foreign, menacing maze of unseen eyes and animal shrieks.

Shorter's languid sax now flails like a harpooned marlin. The drums crash relentlessly as the jaguar suddenly tenses his muscles and pounces upon his unsuspecting prey. Just as it had begun - quick and violent - the attack subsides. Tranquility returns. The frenzied sax now sings like a plaintive violin.

This music is an adventure. Like its namesake, the Amazon jungle, it cannot be second-guessed. It taunts pattern and definition.

As with the music, the album itself is a lucky accident. Recorded in August of 1970, it remained buried in the vaults of Blue Note Records. The session producer, Duke Pearson, brought it to the attention of Blue Note head, George Butler. Butler contacted Wayne Shorter, who had first signed with Blue Note in 1964 and remained there until 1971. Shorter had forgotten about the tapes, although he did recall a session of his featuring what now amounts to the top names in modern jazz - McLaughlin, Corea, Holland, Vituous, Carter. Shorter himself is currently riding high with the excellent Weather Report, a group he co-founded with pianist Josef Zawinul.

Butler and Shorter searched through the Blue Note tapes. These sessions were nowhere to be found. Shorter narrowed the date of the sessions to August, 1970. Still, the tapes did not turn up. Finally, in the last possible storage space, an unmarked box of tape was unearthed. It contained no identifying "cue sheets" of song titles or players. But after two bars, Shorter experienced that welcome flood of recognition. This was it. There was McLaughlin's "Mediterranean" figure and Shorter's own fluid soprano.

What this is then, is another, almost forgotten episode in Wayne Shorter's mercurial musical career. From his professional beginnings with Art Blakey to his emergence as a major compositional talent first with Miles Davis and now Weather Report, Shorter has proven himself a first-rate communicator of the music inside himself. "Moto Grosso Feio" is an adventure, a vision carried by a collection of master musicians. Its colors and intensity will not be repeated. Like all unique work, it is timeless, a junction at which Shorter imagined the beast in the beauty and turned it into music.

Clayton Frohman

Album Coordinator: George Butler
Arranged by: Wayne Shorter
Recorded at: A & R Recording Studio, New York City
Recording Engineer: Tony May
Editing Engineer: Christina Hersch Recorded: August 26, 1970
Art Direction: Bod Cato
Design / Graphics: John Williams