Wayne Shorter Debut Album Remastered

I first became aware of saxophonist Wayne Shorter through his membership in the Miles Davis Quintet during the period from 1965 to 1968. Trumpeter Davis formed this quintet, whose other members were pianist Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter on bass, and drummer Tony Williams. It was through the diversity of the Davis repertoire that I first began thinking of jazz as “chamber music by other means.”

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)

It would not surprise me if Shorter came to Davis’ attention with the release of his debut album, Introducing Wayne Shorter. There were six tracks on the album, the first five of which were Shorter originals. The “outlier” was the final track, Shorter’s take on “Mack the Knife” from the music that Kurt Weill composed for Bertolt Brecht’s “play with music,” The Threepenny Opera. These were all recorded on November 9 and 10 of 1959.

Introducing Wayne Shorter is also a quintet album. Shorter is joined on the front line by trumpeter Lee Morgan. Rhythm is provided by pianist Winton Kelly, Paul Chambers on bass, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. All three of them had performed in Davis’ “First Great Quintet” in 1958. At that time, his saxophonist was John Coltrane. Introducing Wayne Shorter was remastered at the end of this past August and is available for MP3 download through an Amazon.com Web page.

There have been many jokes about Davis chiding Coltrane about the length of the saxophonist’s solo takes. On Introducing Wayne Shorter it is clear that the saxophonist had a clear sense of when enough was enough. Of the six tracks on the album, only one, “Down In The Depths,” exceeded ten minutes. Both Shorter and Morgan had a keen sense of knowing when they had said enough!

I am not ashamed to admit that, given all the different approaches that one now encounters in the name of “jazz,” all of the tracks on Shorter’s debut album deliver “jazz as I like it.” I might almost say that I am as devoted to the period of jazz in the second half of the Sixties as I am to the First Viennese School of Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven! It might be an exaggeration to say that every note counted in both of these settings, but I doubt that the exaggeration would be a great one. After leaving Davis, Shorter would go off into a generous number of different directions; but my personal interests will always, for better or worse, reside in the Sixties!