CD Review: Wayne Shorter, Without a Net

Recommended

Wayne Shorter is one of jazz's acknowledged masters as a tenor and soprano saxophone player and as a composer. His recordings with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, the Miles Davis' second great Quintet, Weather Report, and several of his nine previous Blue Note albums belong in every jazz fan's collection. He is 79 and is obviously in terrific shape. Anything he does is worthy of our attention and respect. On the other hand:

• This is his fourth CD all or part of which features his current quartet of pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. I have liked each one slightly less.
  
  
• My three favorites on this CD are “Orbits,” “Plaza Real,” and “S. S. Golden Mean,” all remakes of songs he has previously recorded. (The latter is the same tune as “Adventures Aboard the Golden Mean,” from his Beyond the Sound Barrier CD.)

These observations could mean that it requires repeated listening for Shorter's music to be appreciated. But maybe not.

This is his first album in slightly over seven years. The songs were recorded live, although with one exception the dates and locations of the performances are not identified. Like Joe Lovano's Us Five, Shorter and his group are exploring “free” (relatively unstructured) jazz. Hence, the risk-taking metaphor in the title of the album. (Half the album's titles make direct or indirect reference to flying.) Of course, if you're up there without a net, you have to be very sure that everything is under control.

A lot of this music could be described as bombastic. Both Perez and Patitucci play their acoustic instruments in a very percussive style much of the time, and Blade frequently punctuates the music with loud explosions. Most importantly, several of Shorter's solos are climaxed by a series of exclamations. Since he plays the soprano sax most of the time, they could alternately be described as squeals, shrieks or screams. Five of the nine cuts had solos on which I thought he was overblowing. It's great that Shorter has this much energy, but I found the album difficult to listen to straight through. To be fair, however, the solos which I found to be most over the top were the very ones that received the most enthusiastic audience responses.

This CD contains only one new and beautiful melody of the type we typically associate with Shorter. The centerpiece of the CD is a 23-minute semi-classical composition, “Pegasus.” The melody is calmly and beautifully stated by a five-piece woodwind quintet, with Shorter sometimes joining them on soprano. But as the piece progresses, both the tempo and the volume increase, and there's a great deal of sturm und drang before they return to the opening theme.

There's a lot to like about this album. “A Starry Night” starts out as a series of instrumental sound effects suggested by the title, until things start building to another crescendo. The final two pieces, "Zero Gravity to the 10th Power" and "(The Notes) Unidentified Flying Objects," with composition credit given to the entire band, are prototypical examples of collective improvisation.

The only standard on the album, “Flying Down to Rio,” is a disappointment. The opening few choruses, while surprisingly slow, promise some relief from the general atmosphere of stress. But at almost 13 minutes, it ultimately turns out to be the most chaotic piece on the CD.

Wayne Shorter has earned the right to take these risks, and I fully expect to come to appreciate some of these performances more with time. Shorter fans will want to hear what he has to say. But if I were drawing up a list of great Shorter CDs, this one would not be near the top.

As part of the promotion for Without a Net, Blue Note Records released a six-part interview—total length, about an hour—of Wayne Shorter conducted by Joe Lovano. I found his stories about Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and other great jazz musicians to be fascinating. It's also interesting to listen to these two bright men attempting to talk about their music. The two of them are on a very similar journey. But it's not easy to talk about jazz. Here's Part 1. You can follow the links to the other five parts.

Tracks: Orbits; Starry Night; S. S. Golden Mean; Plaza Real; Myrrh; Pegasus; Flying Down to Rio; Zero Gravity to the 10^th Power; (The Notes) Unidentified Flying Objects. (77 min.)

Personnel: Wayne Shorter, soprano and tenor saxophones; Danilo Perez, piano; John Patitucci, bass; Brian Blade, drums; The Imani Winds, bassoon, clarinet, flute, French horn and oboe (1 cut).