Wayne Shorter's "Lost Years"

[Tenor Freak]

During the 1980s, Wayne recorded two albums which never seem to feature in any lists of of his essential work, yet are still very good and well worth a spin. They are Atlantis and Phantom Navigator. Both concentrate on composed pieces, with orchestrations and limited space for improvisation; don't expect re-runs of "Speak No Evil" here!



Atlantis is from 1984 and sees Wayne coming to terms with the end of Weather Report. This one has little in the way of synthesisers - only "Endangered Species" is based on a Synclavier riff. The rest feature overdubbed saxophones and flutes with piano, electric bass, drums and voices. Look past the frankly awful lyrics of "When You Dream" and his dodgy intonation on the soprano sax, and there are moments here where Wayne achieves some truly astonishing work, such as the closing track "On The Eve Of Departure", the title track and "Shere Khan, the Tiger" which I believe also appeared on an earlier LP.



By 1987's Phantom Navigator Wayne has integrated synthesisers fully into the matrix but this is not a Weather Report re-run. Zawinul is nowhere to be seen, Wayne's horn is much further up in the mix and there's none of the jamming associated with that band. This is a highly intelligent LP and must have been a bitch to record, as integrating the electronics with the live instruments is difficult. The stand-out track is "Mahogany Bird" which has Chick Corea on piano and John Patitucci on bass. I also recommend "Flagships" which I understand is still a part of his current repertoire along with "Forbidden Plan-iT!". The latter reminds me a bit of Handel, but with added drum machines and samples. It sounds almost like a tonal version of Prime Time without the guitars; the soprano sax carries the melodies surrounded by technology. The tune twists around in unexpected ways. "Flagships" begins with a thundering upward run on the tenor sax against a backdrop of ethereal synths. Another favourite of mine is "Yamanja", which lopes along in a medium tempo, an exercise in uncertainty, a world of demi-anomie.

Check both albums out - they're on Spotify, widely distributed on various blogs and I think both are on CD from Columbia. (I have both on LP)

[Ian Thumwood]

Bruce

Glad to see that you have crossed over too.

Oddly enough, I was once given a copy of "Phanton Navigator" by a friend who had bought it on the strenght of the line up but didn't like the music. After giving it a few spins, I was hugely unimpressed and gave it back! I think I was just getting into ECM at the time and was really conscious as to what seemed to be the direction that jazz was going in. This seemed like a 1970's throw-back and the over-produced nature of the music was very off-putting. I can recall at the time critics were being very critical of Shorter's live bands and the impression was that he hadn't managed to throw off the mantel of Weather Report. I haven't heard this record for over 20 years but would expect the compoitions to be the only thing that would stand out. When I was Esperanza Spalding this summer (on an ill-advised double bill with the woefully talentless Joe Crocker) she played "Endangered Species" and announced that it was a favourite tune. Given that most of the audience had turned up for the singer from Sheffield, they were totally perplexed by the music and Spalding is one musician who, it seems, would purposely antagonise an audience who didn't understand jazz. Much to savvy for the kind of people who would normally listen to Cocker.

I think Wayne Shorter's recent recorded output is shockingly under-presented. I think the current band has only made 2 CD's (perhaps another half a CD is you include "Allegria" ) in the last 10 or so years. This a shameful so such a great band for whom recorded material nwas their regular festival appearances must be in abundance. The line up with Hancock, Holland and Blade has similarly failed to materialise on CD or DVD although you can find clips on Youtube. Personally I am more disappointed that there isn't more work by the current Quartet on disc than material from the 1980's. I'm gald that Shorter appears to have left the excesses of Weather Report behind and is working in an acoustic format. You are right, however, to refer to this decade as shorter's "Lost years" as it was a lost opportunity with the saxophonist draining the last dregs of fusion / jazz-rock just at the time when a new generation of players as wide as Steve Coleman through to Bill Frisell started to make jazz interesting again after the slough of the 1970's. Didn't know if you realised that when John Scofield wanted to form his quartet, the intention was originally to have Shorter playing the tenor before the gig went to Joe lovano. Shorter does appear on Scofield's "Quiet" record, though.

Cheers

Ian

[Tenor Freak]

Ian, have you heard Atlantis at all? It's a lot less electronic than Phantom...but I think Phantom may be the better LP...I'm not put off by the synths and drum machines, because he was onto something back then. I saw his group at the Astoria, I think it was about '87 or '88 with Marilyn Mazur on the traps but he played soprano for most of it. Only at the end did he really play much tenor

I've got "Quiet" which is nice but Shorter sounds a bit bored with it to be honest.

As for the "forensic music" quartet with Holland, Hancock etc...there are recordings out there (and a couple of radio broadcasts too I think) on the old peer-to-peer networks. I saw this group at the Barbican. There are a lot of live recordings of Wayne's quartet, but I guess the record companies aren't interested in releasing new stuff.

[Tenor Freak]

I forgot to say, the pastel drawing on the cover of Atlantis is by Billy Dee Williams, the actor who played Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back. Williams married Wayne's first wife and became Miayko's step-dad.