Wayne Shorter, an influential jazz innovator whose lyrical, advanced jazz compositions and pioneering saxophone taking part in sounded by greater than half a century of American music, has died. He was 89.
Shorter died Thursday in Los Angeles, a consultant for the musician mentioned. No explanation for demise was given.
Shorter, a tenor saxophonist, made his debut in 1959 and would go on to be a foundational member of two of essentially the most seminal jazz teams: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and the Miles Davis Quintet. Over the following eight many years, Shorter’s wide-spanning collaborations would come with co-founding the ’70s fusion band Weather Report, some 10 album appearances with Joni Mitchell and additional explorations with Carlos Santana and Steely Dan.
Many of Shorter’s textured and elliptical compositions — together with “Speak No Evil,” “Black Nile,” “Footprints,” and “Nefertiti” — turned trendy jazz requirements and expanded the harmonic horizons of jazz throughout a few of its most fast-evolving eras.
Herbie Hancock as soon as mentioned of Shorter in Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet: “The master writer to me, in that group, was Wayne Shorter. He still is a master. Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didn’t get changed.”
As a band chief, Shorter launched greater than 25 albums. He received 11 Grammy awards and in 2015 was given a lifetime achievement Grammy.
