Playlist and Notes: 14 March 2023

 

On today’s show we pay homage to Wayne Shorter, who died on 2 March, and we stretch the boundaries of jazz and blues as we listen to some Irish music in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

 

Wayne Shorter – Footprints

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – Sincerely Diana (Composer: Wayne Shorter)

Miles Davis – Iris (Composer: Wayne Shorter)

Steely Dan – Aja (Featuring Wayne Shorter)

Herbie Hancock – Don’t Explain

Damien Rive – 9 Crimes

Christy Moore – How Long

The Dubliners – Whiskey in the Jar

The Irish Rovers – The Orange and The Green

Alex Finn – Down By the Sally Garden

James Morrison – The Turnpike / Dublin Reel / Miss Thornton

 

Notes

Wayne Shorter (1933-2023). Born in Newark, New Jersey, he is considered one of the greatest composers in jazz history. Famous for complex melodies.[1] Member of Art Blakey’s band, as well as Miles Davis Quintet. Founder and member of Weather Report (1976-Feb 1986).

  • In his remembrance of Shorter, Giovanni Russonello noted that for the last decade or so of his life, Shorter was known as the greatest living jazz composer; now that he has passed on, he argues, perhaps we should eliminate the word living, and say he was the greatest jazz composer.[2]
  • Shorter: “The word ‘jazz’ to me, only means ‘I dare you’.”
  • “Footprints” written by Wayne Shorter, on the album Adam’s Apple (1967), with Herbie Hancock, Reginald Workman, and Joe Chambers.
  • “Sincerely Diana,” composed by Wayne Shorter, featuring him on tenor sax, on the album A Night in Tunisia (1960).
  • “Aja” by Steely Dan with Wayne Shorter on the tenor sax.
  • Gerald Early: Davis “walked a line between freedom and tradition with his 1960s quintet that has become the basis for virtually all small-group jazz being played now.”[3]
  • Miles Davis, Second Classic Quintet (1964-1968). Miles Davis (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), and Tony Williams (drums). Known for their “creativity, spontaneity, and interaction.”[4]   Saxophonist Dave Liebman: “one of the most influential groups in jazz history.” [5]

Herbie Hancock was in Miles Davis Quintet and played on Wayne Shorter’s album Adam’s Apple. He teamed up with Irish musicians Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan to cover Billie Holiday’s “Don’t Explain.”

  • Lisa Hannigan (1981- ) B. Kilcloon, Co. Meath, Ireland
  • Damien Rice (1973- ) b. Dublin, Ireland.

“Whiskey in the Jar” – traditional Irish song, probably dating from the 17th century, about a highwayman who robs a government man and then is betrayed by his wife/girlfriend Jenny. Recorded by The Dubliners in 1968, one of their biggest hits.  The famous Luke Kelly on vocals there, considered one of the greatest singers in Irish history.  He died tragically in 1984, at the age of 43 from a brain tumor.

The Irish Rovers – from Canada. Mixture of Canadians of Irish descent and Irish emigres. “The Orange and the Green,” written by Anthony Murphy in Liverpool.

 

 


[1] Nate Chinen, “Wayne Shorter, Innovator During an Era of Change in Jazz, Dies at 89,” New York Times, 2 March 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/arts/music/wayne-shorter-dead.html; Giovanni Russonello, “Wayne Shorter, Jazz’s Abstruse Elder, Isn’t Done Innovating Yet,” New York Times, 12 September 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/arts/music/wayne-shorter-emanon.html; Giovanni Russonello, Wayne Shorter, a Jazz Hero Whose Goal Was ‘to Fear Nothing’,” New York Times, 2 March 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/arts/music/wayne-shorter-songs.html; Michelle Mercer, “The lessons of Wayne Shorter, engine of imagination,” NPR, 7 March 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/03/07/1161361318/wayne-shorter-remembrance-engine-of-imagination-biographer-michelle-mercer.

[3] Gerald Early, “The Art of the Muscle: Miles Davis – an American Knight and American Knave,” in Miles Davis and American Culture edited by Gerard Early (St. Louis: Missouri Society Press, 2001), page 17. (Waters 2011:6)

[4] Quoted in Todd Coolman, “The Miles Davis Quintet of the mid-1960s: Synthesis of Improvisational and Compositional Elements,” (PhD dissertation, New York University, 1997), page 9. (Waters 2011:5)

[5] Keith Waters, The Studio Recordings of Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68 (2011), page 6. 

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