Wayne Shorter, icon of modern jazz, dies at 89
Shorter was born in Newark, N.J., on Aug. 25, 1933. He began playing the clarinet in his youth before switching to the saxophone. He graduated from New York University with a degree in music education in 1956 and then spent two years in the U.S. Army, where he played briefly with Horace Silver. Shorter’s early influences included Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins.
In 1959, Shorter joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and played with them for four years, eventually becoming the band’s musical director and composing original material for the group. In 1964, he joined Miles Davis’s quintet during the famed trumpeter’s acclaimed electric period, appearing on several landmark albums including the genre-defining fusion recordings In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew.
Shorter left Davis’s quintet in 1970 and formed Weather Report with keyboardist Joe Zawinul, bassist Miroslav Vitouš and drummer Alphonse Mouzon. Going through a variety of member lineups between its inception and eventual breakup in 1986, the band became renowned for its funky sound that incorporated elements of rock, R&B, bebop, world music and futurism.
Shorter also recorded 26 albums as a solo bandleader, collaborating with other legendary musicians including Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Curtis Fuller, Joe Chambers, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Reggie Workman, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and Jack DeJohnette.
As a sideman and revered soloist, Shorter recorded albums with Jaco Pastorius, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, Norah Jones, John Scofield, the Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, Esperanza Spalding and many more. He performed prominently on 10 of Joni Mitchell’s albums between 1977 and 2002.
Shorter won a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award in 2021, the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2018, a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of music composition in 2016, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in 2013, and an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music in 1999. He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 1998.