Wayne Shorter biography
Joe Morris
Footprints: The Life and Music of Wayne Shorter
by Michelle Mercer
That's one guy that I don't know a thing about his personal life
Anybody check it out yet?
--
Joe Morris Live music in Atlanta
jol...@gmail.com http://jolomo.net/atlanta/shows.html
Michael Fitzgerald
wrote:
>Footprints: The Life and Music of Wayne Shorter
>by Michelle Mercer
>
>That's one guy that I don't know a thing about his personal life
>Anybody check it out yet?
Yes.
Here's the short(er) answer:
It's shallow. If all you want is something (anything) on his personal
life, you'll probably be OK. If you want to know about his music,
you're looking in the wrong place. Some of his most highly-respected
albums are not discussed at all.
The not-so-short(er) answer:
I wrote extensively on this book at another jazz website. Here's a
highlights-clip from my posts:
Got the biography today. Just paging through it, my impression is that
this is not a serious heavy-duty researched book.
For example:
Joe [Zawinul] and Wayne did manage to speak the international language
of music. For Joe, their friendship was sealed when he discovered
Wayne's comprehensive familiarity with classical music, even the
obscure twentieth-century Viennese composer Friedrich Gulda. "Wayne
and I talked about Schubert, and he could sing the lines," Joe said.
"I was amazed. And then all of a sudden I began to talk about Gulda
and Wayne knew about Gulda, and Wayne is younger than me! I thought,
Damn, man, this guy really knows!" (p.61)
----
OK - so, I'm just not getting this. Gulda was not particularly old -
he was born in 1930. So was Zawinul. Wayne was born in 1933. He wasn't
particularly obscure, particularly considering that we're dealing with
the jazz field, in which Gulda was dabbling - he recorded a live album
at Birdland in 1956 and was quite well publicized in the jazz press.
The period of time being discussed is 1958-59. What's the point here?
Does the author not know about Gulda?
Yes, Zawinul made that comment, but how it's placed and the importance
it's given is the responsibility of the author. Some context needs to
be given. Describing Gulda only as "the obscure twentieth-century
Viennese composer" is quite innacurate and it gives ME the impression
that the author doesn't know enough about Gulda.
Dates don't seem to be a priority - Shorter worked with Horace Silver
in 1957, not 1958. Typos - "Benny Golsen" and errors - photo of
"pianist Jymie Merritt".
My online Art Blakey chronology was consulted for some things (it's
credited in the bibliography). In other areas, it *wasn't* consulted,
so we have Lee Morgan rejoining the Messengers in "late April 1964"
when this happened in mid-March at the latest.
BTW, if you were expecting ANY mention of Shorter-Blakey activity in
1962 or 1963, you're out of luck. We go straight from October 1961
(Mosaic) to April 1964 (Indestructible).
A disappointment so far. I'm hoping it doesn't get much worse, but I
remain skeptical. Shorter's involvement is certainly valuable, but I
think I'm going to wish that a qualified historian were involved with
this project.
The kinds of mistakes I pointed out are things that stick out -
because they're black or white. Not gray. Getting those things right
is the bare minimum. If you can't be bothered to do that, I have
doubts about the bigger things.
If someone is going to the effort to write a book on Wayne Shorter and
only Wayne Shorter, that book should be unimpeachable in terms of
facts of his life. If someone wants to know when Wayne did something,
that book should supply the answer. This book fails on that.
The album "Africaine" (which issued Shorter's first session with
Blakey) is treated as if it had been issued at the time (1959). In
fact, the album didn't come out for two decades.
I think this book will only be worth anything because of the
interviews that Mercer did. Quite a few things will receive some
attention that never got any before. The problem is that if Mercer
can't get the basic things correct (names, dates, tunes, etc.) that
*have* been known, will the reader feel confident about the new
information that is being presented?
Those basic things should be a *given*. I certainly don't want that to
be the point at which the book stops. I want all the wonderful
insights into Wayne's mind and spirit, I want informed musical
analysis of his compositions and improvisations.
Unfortunately, the musical analysis which is supposed to be included
(the dustjacket says "Filled with musical analysis by Mercer" and the
notes say "My musical analysis is based on study of Wayne's original
scores whenever possible"), won't be found here. Then there is the
thorough coverage of a very significant chunk of a career with this
(p.105):
During their break from Miles's quintet, his sidemen recorded some of
their finest work for Blue Note: There was Herbie's Maiden Voyage and
Tony's Spring, on which Wayne served as a sideman. Wayne also played
on his former Messengers' bandmate Lee Morgan's The Gigolo. And
between March and October 1965, Wayne made three records of his own as
a leader, The Soothsayer, Etcetera, and The All Seeing Eye, which
brought his total Blue Note output to six records in eighteen months.
-----
A little follows on Alan Shorter, some quotes from Freddie Hubbard
(saying that he had to practice Wayne's music) and Joe Chambers
(discussing how Duke Pearson acted as a buffer between Lion and Wolff
and the musicians and mentioning how Adam's Apple was somewhat
commercial sounding), then a paraphrase of the Nat Hentoff/Shorter
liner notes from All Seeing Eye.
Night Dreamer and JuJu are both glossed over in the space of a single
page (p. 93).
So, that's six classic Blue Note albums - seven, because Speak No Evil
is NEVER discussed, just mentioned in passing (once in the Hubbard
quote, where it along with All Seeing Eye are called 'some of his best
records') and once related to a 1973 section (p. 154) dealing with
"cause and effect" and philosophy.
Eight albums, because Schizophrenia is NEVER even mentioned at all.
The entirety of the Moto Grosso Feio album reference is as "Wayne's
Blue Note recording from 1970 that also was released in 1974." Odyssey
Of Iska gets half a page (p.139). Super Nova does get some coverage
(pp. 131-133, 140, 164, 253). But come on, this is a book ON WAYNE
SHORTER - is it too much to expect discussion of the records that got
him his status as a great musician? Hubbard says those records are
some of his [Wayne's] best records - WHY are they his best? What's
good about them? There isn't a discography, not even a list of his
albums included in the book.
There is some info on Wayne's brother Alan. Not a lot but certainly
more than in any other book.
Eric Dolphy get this solitary mention: "Of course, there was a lot of
experimental music around; artists like Ornette Coleman, John
Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy were reshaping jazz into entirely new
forms." (p. 111) That's it. I was hoping to find discussion (at least
*mention*) of the Freddie Hubbard album that Wayne wrote the
arrangements for in 1963 - where he used a big band, a string
orchestra, and a septet (Dolphy is in all three ensembles), but nope,
nothing. I wasn't really counting on any discussion of the other time
Shorter and Dolphy recorded together (the Benny Golson: Jazz + Pop
thing).
Grachan Moncur is mentioned on 2 pages. Here are the quotes:
With this conviction, Wayne decided to pick up the tenor saxophone. He
soon joined an orchestra led by Jackie Bland, which included his
brother, Alan, and, at various times, trombonist Grachan Moncur III
and pianist Walter Davis, or "Humphrey" - Wayne would later play with
Walter in a professional setting. (p.32)
-----
[In the Nat Phipps band] Wayne was surrounded by talent: There was
Nat's brother, Bill Phipps, who went on to play with Dizzy Gillespie;
trombonist Grachan Moncur III, who recorded with Tony Williams and
Jackie McLean in the early sixties; trombonist Tom McIntosh, who wrote
for Dizzy, composing the musicians' favorite "Cup Bearers," and was a
longtime associate of James Moody, himself raised in Newark. (p.44)
-----
I'm gonna SCREAM! The photos (16 pages, most very nice) include the
sleeve from the "Jazz At The Opera House" LP on Columbia. Here's the
caption: "At critic Conrad Silvert's farewell fiesta concert in 1982,
recorded as Jazz at the Opera House. Pictured (left to right) are
Charlie Haden (between two unidentified men), Tony Williams, Wynton
Marsalis, Conrad Silvert, Lew Tabackin, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Pat Metheny,
Carlos Santana, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne, and Herbie Hancock. The
painting behind the group was collectively created by the musicians
after the show."
Jesus Christ - firstly, Lew Tabackin is the first of the "unidentified
men" - the other is Jaco Pastorius - then the man incorrectly
identified as Tabackin is pianist Denny Zeitlin. How hard can this
be?!? Here's what you do: you get the damn record (CBS 38430) and you
pull out the sleeve, you look at the exact same photo and you then
look at the bottom of the sleeve where it correctly identifies
EVERYONE and talks about the painting.
BTW, there's no discussion of this concert or album, not even the
mention that this "farewell fiesta" was produced by Silvert as a
going-away present to/from himself because he was dying of cancer (he
died about three weeks after).
There's even a WONDERFUL Shorter description of the concert, from an
interview when he compares it with a 1991 meeting with Miles Davis
towards the end of Miles's life (which actually is mentioned at the
very start of the book):
From http://www.lebjazz.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=244
I had once experienced something similar before. There was a writer I
knew, he gave a big party for himself because he knew he only had
about a month to live: he had cancer. His name was Conrad Silvert and
he was a very sensitive art and music critic and he died at the age of
34. He gave a big sort of "bash" and invited musicians like Sonny
Rollins, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Lew Tabackin, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie
Hancock, myself, Tony Williams and Sheila was there with her father
and uncle. There were a lot of people there at the Opera House in San
Francisco. Also some people walked on the stage when we were playing.
Carlos Santana walked in and played. And this gentleman, Conrad
Silvert, had a similar type of glow which came from within. After that
-- I will call it like a "fiesta" he gave for himself and the others.
Maybe about three weeks later he died.
==========
Could have been included in the book, but alas, the opportunity was
missed.
OK, someone help me out with this one - page 87:
The youthful performances of Wayne and Lee stirred up a special fever
of excitement among Japanese girls, which must have struck a deep
chord in the musicians: Both soon married Japanese-American women. The
entire band left the country in tears.
On July 28, 1961, Wayne married Irene Nakagami, a Japanese-American
woman born in Chicago. [...] "We met, and before I knew it I was
married; it was the fast lane." They had a daughter, Miyako, on August
8, 1961.
-----------
OK, now I know this is the fast lane, but babies still take nine
months, right? So, from Japanese tour - last known concert is January
11, 1961 - to birth of Miyako is less than seven months. Which would
mean that Shorter would have had to have met Irene *before* the
Japanese tour. Which means that this "fever of excitement" and "deep
chord" is all a lot of unsubstantiated - nay, clearly false -
nonsense.
Or am I overlooking something?
This book (and I don't mean to imply it's the only one) could have
used a competent editor. Another gaffe - anyone who's been to Newark,
NJ knows route 21 is *McCarter* Highway, not "MacArthur Highway" as
the book has it more than once.
Here's a quote from p. 107:
"Slugs remained an unofficial after-hours musicians' hang until Lee
Morgan was shot to death onstage by his mistress there in 1972."
There are several problems with this sentence: Lee Morgan was not shot
onstage. The correct name is Slugs' - with the apostrophe - and it was
an "official" jazz club booking music before and after Morgan's death.
Then there's the question whether "mistress" is the appropriate term
for More - I've also heard "common-law wife" - which seems quite
different.
While reading, I kept a running list of interview subjects (would have
been nice if the book included one already). Here's what I came up
with:
Amiri Baraka
Walter Becker
Brian Blade
Maria Booker
Terri Lyne Carrington
Ron Carter
Joe Chambers
Jodie Christian
Chick Corea
Jack DeJohnette
Dave Douglas
Peter Erskine
Curtis Fuller
Rob Griffin (engineer)
Gigi Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Dave Holland
Freddie Hubbard
Alphonso Johnson
Wynton Marsalis
Hal Miller (journalist)
Marcus Miller
Joni Mitchell
Airto Moreira
Milton Nascimento
John Patitucci
Danilo Perez
Nat Phipps
Sonny Rollins
Carlos Santana
Eddy Strickler (roadie - not in index)
Bobby Thomas
Tina Turner
Rudy Van Gelder
Cedar Walton
McCoy Tyner
Miroslav Vitous
Joe Zawinul
The task wasn't so easy because there are quotes that are uncredited -
like those of Ana Maria Shorter, who couldn't have been interviewed by
Mercer because she had died in 1996. The notes say: "Between 2003 and
2004, I conducted more than seventy-five interviews with various
sources, and had at least that many discussions with Wayne Shorter
himself." The acknowledgments begin with "All the interviewees,
especially those who are not directly quoted in the book but who so
richly informed my perspective."
There are a number of quotes from other sources that are NOT listed in
the endnotes. I can't find any logic to explain what is and isn't in
the endnotes. Sloppy editing, I guess.
Again, a decent editor would have caught what I found to be a striking
repetition - page 25 introduces the film The Red Shoes, which is
important in Wayne's life. But every single subsequent time it is
mentioned it is referred to as: his favorite movie, The Red Shoes; his
favorite movie, The Red Shoes; Wayne's favorite movie, The Red Shoes;
Wayne's favorite movie, The Red Shoes.
There is no composition index. The endnotes, such as they are, only
deal with quoted material, not with the sources of factual
information. The index is pathetic, listing some mentioned tunes, not
listing others which are mentioned in the text. But nowhere does it
tell us that Mama G is the same tune as Nellie Bly, even though "both"
tunes are mentioned in the text.
I think it does a good job of dealing with Wayne's personality. The
interviews with others - and there were many, and with the "right"
people - may have helped with this, but I'm disappointed that better
quotes weren't used. Mercer talked to over 75 people about Wayne and
the quotes included are crap, almost all of them.
Sorry folks, this is an appallingly shallow book. It may be of use to
a serious biographer who can find some quotes from the original
interviews.
I've finished the book now. I've mined it for new facts for my
chronology (just a few). It's going on the shelf.
Mike
fitz...@eclipse.net
http://www.eclipse.net/~fitzgera - Gigi Gryce book - ARSC award winner!
http://www.JazzDiscography.com
Joe Morris
> It's shallow. If all you want is something (anything) on his personal
> life, you'll probably be OK. If you want to know about his music,
> you're looking in the wrong place. Some of his most highly-respected
> albums are not discussed at all.
[snip]
That's a shame -- especially how little is covered on his
classic BlueNote years and the period from 1961-Miles has
always interested me too. Guess I'll just check this out
at the library and wait for the second WS biography.
Thanks for the info