Wayne Shorter

The pioneering American jazz musician Wayne Shorter, a longtime practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism, died on Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 89 years old.

After his conversion to Buddhism, which he practiced Nichiren Buddhism for more than 50 years as a member of Soka Gakkai International, commentators noted that Shorter’s musical approach evolved to become more focused on human interaction and the human condition. When Danilo Perez thought Wayne was safely immersed in the chanting, he tiptoed into the front of his bandleader’s dressing room and rummaged around for the wine supply. He punched the wall a couple of times—in tribute to Miles’s love for boxing, he said—and then walked out onstage doing a James Cagney impression. In Buddhism, it says, ‘An airplane needs resistance to take off.’ To me, that means each person has to become aware of the resistance that’s in front of them.” (JazzTimes) “I’m striving to open up those people who aren’t used to thinking in those terms.” It’s a Buddhist thing. In a 2021 interview, he noted: “Years ago, record companies would sign somebody and if the music was . Shorter’s Nichiren Buddhist practice, which he adopted in the 1970s, infused his approach to making music. “At this point I’m looking to express eternity in composition,” he says. Visionary composer, saxophonist, visual artist, devout Buddhist, devoted husband, father, and grandfather Wayne Shorter has passed away at age 89, departing the earth as we know it and embarking on a new journey as part of his extraordinary life. “His music possessed a spirit that came from somewhere way, way beyond and made this world a much better place,” said Blue Note’s president, Don Was. Over a career that spanned 60 years, Shorter was credited with shaping much of 20th century jazz music, becoming a 12-time Grammy award winner, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. Our hearts go out to [his wife] Carolina and all who loved him.” (Blue Note)

Wayne Shorter, a legendary jazz saxophonist, passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 89. Shorter was a well-known player on the jazz scene.

Soon after, he switched from alto to soprano on the saxophone and pursued music studies at a university before serving in the US Army for two years. For the Rolling Stones’ album Brides to Babylon that year, he also performed with them. He performed there with the renowned pianist Hancock.

Hancock praised Shorter for his musical expertise and leaving a special mark in his life.

In 2015 he was given a lifetime achievement Grammy. I miss being around him and his special Wayne-isms but I carry his spirit within my heart always.” Herbie Hancock once said of Shorter in Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet: “The master writer to me, in that group, was Wayne Shorter. “Wayne Shorter, my best friend, left us with courage in his heart, love and compassion for all, and a seeking spirit for the eternal future,” Hancock said in a statement. Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didn’t get changed.” It called him a gentle spirit who was “always inquisitive and constantly exploring.”

Wayne Shorter had "courage in his heart, love and compassion for all, and a seeking spirit for the eternal future," another jazz giant, Herbie Hancock, ...

"He was able to reach the pinnacle of excellence as a saxophonist, composer, orchestrator, and recently, composer of the masterful opera 'Iphigenia.' Shorter was also a Guggenheim fellow and a National Endowment for the Arts jazz master. Three months later, Shorter was among the recipients of a Kennedy Center honor. He actually began learning the clarinet before switching to tenor sax and joining a local group with his trumpet-playing brother. The Recording Academy awarded Shorter a lifetime achievement honor in 2015. to specialize in the visual and performing arts.

Wayne Shorter, an influential jazz innovator whose lyrical, complex jazz compositions and pioneering saxophone playing sounded through more than half a ...

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Influential jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter has died at the age of 89. The Grammy-winning jazz musician and composer passed away surrounded by family at a ...

Wayne Shorter, the storied saxophonist considered one of America's greatest jazz composers and among the genre's leading risk-takers, died on Thursday in ...

"Just to hear them talking, my mouth was open. A lover of comics and a long-time practicing Buddhist, Shorter in 2018 dropped "Emanon," a triple-disc tucked inside a 74-page fantasy graphic novel he co-wrote that details the adventures of a "rogue philosopher" who fights evil with truth. In 1970, Shorter co-founded Weather Report, where he played a leading role in the development of jazz fusion -- which combined the harmonies and improvisation of jazz with developing forms of rock, funk and R&B. "Wayne is a real composer" with "a kind of curiosity about working with musical rules," Davis said in his autobiography. He attended New York University, where he graduated with a degree in music education in 1956, and spent two years in the army, where he played with jazz pianist Horace Silver. "And we had wrinkled clothes, because we thought you played bebop better with wrinkled clothes," Shorter told The Atlantic in 2004.

Wayne Shorter, an influential jazz innovator whose lyrical, complex jazz compositions and pioneering saxophone playing sounded through more than half a ...

Logan Sargeant, who moved to Europe as a teenager to pursue his dream, has beaten all the odds and will debut for Williams in this weekend's season-opening F1 race in Bahrain. Three million girls have been deprived of secondary education since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021, according to UNICEF. [Sci-Tech](https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech) [New crew from U.S., Russia and U.A.E. futures and global stock markets advanced Friday after a Federal Reserve official raised hopes the U.S. in the fire raged on for hours. The SpaceX capsule and its four astronauts had to wait 65 feet (20 meters) from the orbiting lab, as flight controllers in California scrambled to come up with a software fix. strategy in the Vietnam War and became known as the Pentagon Papers, said he has terminal cancer and months to live. Animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere is taking responsibility for the frozen pig carcasses found hanging under overpasses in Montreal Thursday morning. Ontarians are bracing for a snowstorm that is expected to dump upwards of 20 centimetres on parts of the province, while B.C. Herbie Hancock once said of Shorter in Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet: "The master writer to me, in that group, was Wayne Shorter. Over the next eight decades, Shorter's wide-spanning collaborations would include co-founding the '70s fusion band Weather Report, some 10 album appearances with Joni Mitchell and further explorations with Carlos Santana and Steely Dan. It called him a gentle spirit who was "always inquisitive and constantly exploring."

Wayne Shorter, the storied saxophonist considered one of America's greatest jazz composers and among the genre's leading risk-takers, died on Thursday in ...

"Just to hear them talking, my mouth was open. A lover of comics and a long-time practicing Buddhist, Shorter in 2018 dropped "Emanon," a triple-disc tucked inside a 74-page fantasy graphic novel he co-wrote that details the adventures of a "rogue philosopher" who fights evil with truth. In 1970, Shorter co-founded Weather Report, where he played a leading role in the development of jazz fusion -- which combined the harmonies and improvisation of jazz with developing forms of rock, funk and R&B. "Wayne is a real composer" with "a kind of curiosity about working with musical rules," Davis said in his autobiography. He attended New York University, where he graduated with a degree in music education in 1956, and spent two years in the army, where he played with jazz pianist Horace Silver. "And we had wrinkled clothes, because we thought you played bebop better with wrinkled clothes," Shorter told The Atlantic in 2004.

"It was probably the high point of my musical life", says American pianist and composer Richie Beirach of his experience performing in Japan with Wayne ...

He overcame and adapted to the changing world with wonderful grace, humility and always with that devilish sense of humor. He never spoke much, but when he did it was likely to be a torrent of wisdom and grace. Wayne Shorter was much more than a great sax player and composer; he was a genius motivator of all musicians around him and a great humanitarian too.

WBGO looks back at its coverage of the influential saxophonist and composer (and Newark native).

Listen to the first hour of the show above. [here](https://www.wbgo.org/music/2020-11-25/crate-digging-with-christian-mcbride-joe-zawinul-and-50-years-of-weather-report). In 2020 Christian McBride presented a must-hear 2006 concert from The Zawinul Syndicate, with Zawinul leading the way through a career-spanning setlist. Watch the performance [here](https://www.wbgo.org/music/2017-04-20/wayne-shorter-the-newark-flash-recalls-his-formative-years-in-the-ironbound-and-beyond). Over the years, WBGO covered and played the music of Shorter in various settings.

The composer and saxophonist died on March 2, at the age of 89. From the 1950s to today, he was one of the essential links in the history of jazz, ...

He became the bandleader of the Messengers, before attempting a formidable adventure with the Miles Davis quintet (1964-68), with whom he assumed the same role. A group that will be his laboratory for fifteen years, experimenting in all directions (funk grooves, R’n’B, borrowings from traditional music, synthetic madness, collective improvisation) growing the sax with immense talents such as the bassist of the group Jaco Pastorius, the percussionist Mino Cinelu and so many others… For the native of Newark (a suburb of New York) in 1933, this great journey began with his brother, with whom he threw himself into music in the wake of the bebop revolution, forming the Shorter Brothers.

Wayne Shorter was a giant of the genre as an improviser, bandleader, and thinker, but above all as a composer.

And Shorter was the most influential soprano saxophonist after Coltrane. Shorter continued to produce music at a high level nearly to the end of his life. Weird.”) The band was one of the best examples of the blues- and gospel-inflected jazz of the era, known as hard bop. The first time I heard them live, in Edinburgh in 2003, was one of the most dazzling performances I’ve seen. (Iphigenia), an opera co-written with the young bassist Esperanza Spalding. After his famous band with John Coltrane split up, the trumpeter worked to assemble a new band of comparable caliber, eventually landing on a line-up featuring Tony Williams on drums, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Shorter on saxophone. His greatest post–Weather Report project didn’t appear until 2000, when he formed a quartet with the pianist Danilo Pérez, the bassist John Patitucci, and the drummer Brian Blade. Zawinul came to dominate Weather Report compositionally and sonically, but Shorter’s horn playing and writing were essential to the group’s success. In the 1970s and ’80s, Shorter co-led Weather Report, the premier jazz-fusion band, with Joe Zawinul. Though its output was sometimes uneven, Weather Report managed to mostly avoid the excesses and cheesiness associated with fusion. In spring 1970, however, he left the band, joining up with Zawinul, an Austrian keyboardist who had also contributed to those records, to form Weather Report. [Footprints](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XolY-Bm0QL8),” a hypnotic blues in 3/4 time, is superficially simple enough that it’s a staple for high-school jazz combos and [adventurous rock bands](https://www.friendsofcheese.com/songs.php?songId=406).

Stuart Nicholson Friday, March 3, 2023. Stuart Nicholson pays tribute to one of the greatest saxophonists and composers in jazz, who has died aged 89.

– the Davis quintet of which he was a member with Freddie Hubbard in Davis’ stead. Now, the horns relinquished complex lines, and the complexity rested with the piano, bass and drums and became characteristic of Weather Report, whom Shorter joined in 1971. A memorable composition in its own right, it was typical of the degree of sophistication Shorter brought to the hard bop idiom through his compositional skill. They avoided turnarounds – a set of chords that announced the end of a chorus – Shorter intent in encouraging free flowing improvisations. The following year he joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and soon became its musical director, instrumental in expanding the front-line to include a trombone alongside his tenor sax and Lee Morgan’s trumpet. Encouraged by his parents to learn the clarinet, he threw himself into music studies, subsequently graduating from New York University in 1952 with a degree in music education.

Whether leading his own groups, or working with Miles Davis or Weather Report, the saxophonist and composer was constantly expanding his impeccable style.

[Herbie Hancock](https://pitchfork.com/artists/12521-herbie-hancock/), Shorter was convinced that jazz asked life’s ultimate question: How do you rehearse the unknown? [Wayne Shorter](https://pitchfork.com/artists/18931-wayne-shorter/) would have gone down as one of the most important jazz musicians of the 20th century. And yet, no matter the style, he played with a level of comfort that only elevated the music, and artists, around him.

In his career, Wayne Shorter has had more than 200 compositions and was a Kennedy Center honoree in 2018.