Wayne Shorter

About Wayne Shorter

“Wayne Shorter is not only one of jazz’s greatest composers but its angel of esotericism, an enlightened and arcane elder.” – The New York Times

Considered to be one of the world’s greatest composers and one of the greatest jazz saxophonists of all time, Wayne Shorter has been honored with 12 Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Grammy), five honorary doctorate degrees, the Kennedy Center Honor, Polar Music Prize, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and many other awards and honors for his contributions to music.

Wayne Shorter’s compositions have become jazz standards, and his music has earned worldwide recognition, critical praise and various commendations. He has also received acclaim for his mastery of the soprano saxophone after switching his focus from the tenor in the late 1960s beginning an extended reign in 1970 as DownBeat’s annual poll-winner on that instrument, winning the critics’ poll for 10 consecutive years and the readers’ for 18. The New York Times described Shorter in 2008 as “probably jazz’s greatest living small-group composer and a contender for greatest living improviser”.

Wayne Shorter, called a genius, a trailblazer, a visionary, was born on August 25, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey. He studied at New York University and served in the U.S. Army. He spent brief periods in the Horace Silver quintet and the Maynard Ferguson big band before his first major association, with Art Blakey’s hard-bop Jazz Messengers. Miles Davis convinced Shorter to join his quintet in September 1964, thus completing the lineup of a group whose biggest impact would leapfrog a generation into the ’80s.

Staying with Miles until 1970, Shorter became the band’s most prolific composer at times, contributing tunes like “E.S.P.,” “Pinocchio,” “Nefertiti,” “Sanctuary,” “Footprints,” “Fall,” and the signature description of Miles, “Prince of Darkness.” Herbie Hancock said: “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.”

Following the release of "Odyssey of Iska" in 1970, Shorter formed Weather Report. The band produced many high-quality recordings in diverse styles, with funk, bebop, Latin jazz, ethnic music, and futurism being the most prevalent denominators. After leaving Weather Report in 1986, Shorter continued to record and lead groups in jazz fusion styles.

In 2000, he formed the first permanent acoustic group under his name, a quartet with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade, playing his own compositions. Four albums of live recordings have been released: "Footprints Live"; "Beyond the Sound Barrier"; "Without a Net"; and "Emanon", with the latter, in addition to live material, including Shorter’s quartet in a studio session with the 34-piece Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

In 2021, at age 88, he realized a lifelong dream in premiering his opera "...(Iphigenia)," which he had first started composing at age 19. His collaborators included bassist/composer/vocalist esperanza spalding, who wrote the libretto and sang the title role; and architect Frank Gehry, who contributed scenic design. The opera enjoyed a sold-out five-city tour including at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and was hailed as “the magnificent capstone to one of the all-time great jazz careers” in the Los Angeles Times.

Wayne Shorter’s works have been performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Lyon Symphony, National Polish Radio Symphonic Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He has received commissions from the National, St. Louis, and Nashville Symphony Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the La Jolla Music Society.

Shorter has realized over 200 compositions and dozens of these works have become modern standards.