WAYNE SHORTER PASSED THROUGH
Today seemed like an ordinary day. I joined my son this morning for a walk along the Grand River and we talked as usual, about whatever was on our minds at the time. While we walked and talked, the world stopped for a very brief moment to allow Wayne Shorter to pass through into the next phase of his being. I don’t know precisely what I was doing or thinking at that moment; I didn’t hear about it until I received a text message from my friend Bill White. I was shocked at the news and had it confirmed by the online RIPs.
Wayne is Buddhist, and therefore will never leave us, but how will we know he’s still here? For me, it will be his legacy, the music he recorded and the compositions I will continue to play. I will also remember the times I heard him perform live; with Miles, Weather Report, and Blakey.
As you can probably guess, I am old enough to remember seeing him live with those other great icons of jazz who have also passed through. I am 80, Wayne is 89, so we have inhabited this terrain for much of the same time.
I don’t normally use superlatives, but here I will make an exception. Wayne Shorter is the most important figure in the history of jazz music. He entered jazz during the 1950s at the tail end of bebop, began composing during his time with Art Blakey, continued following the path through Miles Davis’ second quintet, embraced fusion with Weather Report, and pursued a more free-form direction with his own quartet. In each phase he learned more, and brought each of the previous experiences with him, an evolution of not only his own work, but of jazz itself. In his final years with us, he completed the composition of an opera with Esperanza Spalding and managed to hear it performed. Wayne Shorter is the mainstream of jazz.