Shorter, Wayne
Celebration Volume 1
Rare & Collectible Vinyl Records

Sealed 2024 2LP gatefold original. "During the last months and days of his life, saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter curated unissued material in preparation for a celebration of the 60th anniversary of his signing to Blue Note. Given his deteriorating health, he knew he was unlikely to see it to fruition (he died in March 2023). Celebration, Vol. 1 is the first of the releases he compiled. It features his longstanding Wayne Shorter Quartet with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade performing at the Stockholm Jazz Festival in 2014. Founded in 2000, the group communicated best on-stage, attested to by their releases in 2023 alone: four live albums and one studio date, Alegria.

The album centers on this group's improvisational acumen as evidenced by five renditions of "Zero Gravity," a pair of revisioned standards, two Shorter compositions, and "She Moves Through the Fair." Opener "Zero Gravity to the 15th Dimension" is nearly 12 minutes of intimate communication revolving around agile, shifting rhythms, a contrapuntal improv strategy, and a near-symbiotic flow of energy while the pianist and bassist instigate call-and-response in unison. As Shorter's tenor enters, Patitucci offers arco support , playing bowed chords under the saxophonist's lines. Blade cannily creates a spacious yet pronounced anchor. They follow with an incantatory re-visioning of Arthur A. Penn's "Smilin' Through." It reveals the hidden depths in Perez's labyrinthine lyricism and Shorter's soulful sensitivity. Three different, brief expansions of "Zero Gravity" offer spirited improv as bassist and pianist assert lines under and around a soprano saxophone. The band offer a startling version of Shorter's "Orbits" (it originally appeared on 1967's Miles Smiles). It develops with Shorter whistling over the piano vamp before Patitucci and Blade enter, adding layered structure and drama. The version of Arthur Rubenstein's "Edge of the World (End Title)" was inspired by the orchestral version in the soundtrack to War Games. Shorter plays soprano, and with Perez, coaxes a sublime lyric melody from its moody changes. The album's two final works -- Shorter's "Lotus" and the traditional "She Moves Through the Fair" -- account for 40 minutes of the album's runtime. In the former, Shorter whispers on his soprano while leaning into the rhythm section's processional undercurrent. Pérez takes his cue from the soprano lines, then embellishes them with modal chords and eerie vamps. "She Moves Though the Fair" finds Pérez investigating and balancing harmony and rhythm before he solos in the upper register, prodding the bassist and drummer. Eventually, he opens the instrument's lid and starts plucking and strumming its strings and hammering its mallets. Blade's pulse, while remarkably elastic, remains unerringly in the center, as Patitucci offers sophisticated bass excursions in the margins. The group never strays too far from melody and rhythm, but their tense drama keeps the excitement intact before the collective improvisation explodes with modal swing at the end. Celebration, Vol. 1 is aptly titled. The Wayne Shorter Quartet was a supergroup of bandleaders led by one of jazz music's most iconic composers and saxophonists. It will be exciting to hear what comes next from this album series." All Music Guide - Thom Jurek