Wayne Shorter: Celebration Volume 1

In 2000, three years short of entering his eighth decade on this planet—a place of origin which at times seemed questionable, though he made less fuss about it than Sun Ra—Wayne Shorter finally did what he had resisted doing throughout his career. He formed his own band, not just for an album project but as an ongoing touring and recording unit. By the time Shorter passed in 2023, the Wayne Shorter Quartet had released four live albums and a studio album, Alegria (Verve, 2003), on which the group was augmented by guest musicians.

To the surprise of closet ageists in the jazz community, and to the joy of Shorter's fans, the Quartet—completed by pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade—proved not to be a supportive cushion on which Shorter could manage a graceful decline, but instead the vehicle for his Indian summer. With the supremely empathetic band, he reached heights of artistry and invention every bit as exalted as he had on his own albums and as a member of Miles Davis' quintet in the 1960s, and later with Weather Report.

Celebration Volume 1, a double album, catches the Quartet in performance at Stockholm Concert Hall in October 2014, as part of the Stockholm Jazz Festival. It is, the press materials tell us, the first in what will be a series of previously unreleased Shorter recordings. Hooray! Richly and crisply recorded, the album captures the band in stellar form, as on point as it is on its immediate predecessor, Without A Net (Blue Note, 2013). And stellar really is the word: as with all the Quartet's recordings, one feels like one is cruising through space on Starship Shorter, watching an unfolding panorama of quasars, suns, star systems and new life-forms pass by. Another metaphor might be one of those deep sea explorations where strange but beautiful sea creatures drift in and out of the submersible's spotlight. It is a trip alright.

Celebration Volume 1's programme includes favourites from Shorter's and the Quartet's back catalogues—"Orbits," which first appeared on Miles Davis' Miles Smiles (Columbia, 1967), before reappearing in new clothes on Alegria and Without A Net, "She Moves Through The Fair," heard on Alegria and Emanon (Blue Note, 2018), "Smilin' Through," from Beyond The Sound Barrier (Verve, 2005), and "Lotus," from Emanon. There are five group improvisations, the various "Zero Gravity" titles. The two covers include Arthur B. Rubinstein's "Edge Of The World (End Title)" (check the YouTube below). Track running times range from two minutes ("Zero Gravity In The 12th Dimension") to 20:16 ("She Moves Through The Fair," which takes up all of the vinyl edition's fourth side).

In the liner notes, Carolina Shorter writes that her husband originally wanted to call the planned series of previously unreleased records Unidentified Flying Objects, "thinking of the notes everyone played as being UFOs!" she says. "In January 2023, when he was hospitalized for the last time, he continued picking tracks and laying out the albums. His 'Never Give Up' spirit, which underlines his entire mission, was stronger than ever and he was excited to release more music. It was only in the last 10 days of his life that he realized he was not going to be around to see it to fruition. He started feeling the urgency of celebrating life and decided to change the name of the collection to Celebration. I said 'Yes Wayne! Let's celebrate!!! That's what it should be called. A celebration!'"

It surely is. By coincidence or otherwise, the playing time of Celebration Volume 1 is 89 minutes, one for each year of Shorter's life. And every one of them is a winner. Many listeners will likely feel the album deserves more than four stars, but too many posthumous albums by great musicians get a fifth star simply on the grounds of being released. Shorter's four stars are a sort of protest about that (but, entre nous, this is a five star album).

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