He was the tenor saxophonist and main composer for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers --- and then for the Miles Davis Quintet --- in the Sixties. Later in that decade, he took up the soprano sax while participating in the landmark Davis recording sessions that would produce "Bitches Brew" (and he's now a master on both horns).
He co-led Weather Report, the internationally popular jazz-rock fusion supergroup, in the Seventies and Eighties.
He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 1998; he's won several Grammy Awards over the years (while recording for Blue Note, Columbia, Verve, and other labels).
He is a lifelong fan of sci-fi stories, horror movies, comic books, and other such out-of-this-world pop cultural phenomena; ergo, his nickname in high school was "Mr. Weird." (In other accounts, his nickname was "Mr. Gone" --- which is why there's a 1978 Weather Report album with that title.)
Also, he is widely considered our greatest living jazz composer --- having penned such post-bop standards as "Nefertiti," "Speak No Evil," "Footprints," and "Infant Eyes" --- and he'll turn 79 years old on Saturday the 25th.
He is, of course, Wayne Shorter, born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1933.
All of which means that, for our second-hour theme on the 8/25/12 edition of All This Jazz, we'll be playing Shorter's tunes exclusively . . . as performed by a richly varied array of bands and soloists.
Join us! Saturday at 10pm on 89.5 FM! (And Happy Birthday, Wayne Shorter!)
