Miyako: Wayne Shorter, Japan, Jazz, and Universal Spirituality

Japan is one of the lands best known for its voracious appetite for American jazz. The above image, depicting Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, whose musical partnership included membership in Miles Davis's Second Quintet, shows the depths to which the Japanese jazz audience follows quite religiously some of jazz's greatest. A probably little known fact, however, is Wayne Shorter's first wife was of Japanese origin. Their daughter, Miyako, would inspire "Infant Eyes" from Speak No Evil as well as a ballad, "Miyako," from Schizophrenia. One can detect the influence of Japanese music, culture, and religious traditions on Wayne Shorter's music and life beyond his first wife (depicted on the cover to Speak No Evil below). For instance, Shorter converted to a Japanese form of Buddhism, and some of his own compositions and jazz tracks he's recorded on featured Japanese titles, allusions, or, more generally, "Eastern" themes. Moreover, he is better able to escape the stereotypical "exoticism" of "Eastern" influences other jazz artists often succumbed to for American jazz audiences who lacked any knowledge of the music of East Asia, largely because his music suggests those influences rather than endeavoring to reproduce it.

Listen to his playing with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers from a live show at Birdland in 1963, just after a return to the US from tour in Japan. On Cedar Walton's "Ugetsu" (wrongly translated as fantasy) features a Japanese title for a jazz waltz-like composition. Lacking any overt "Oriental" theme, Walton's piano plays suggestively of a fantasy. Shorter, Curtis Fuller, Blakey's thunderous drumming, and the song's beautiful melody do create a fantasy world that, unfortunately, comes to an end. From the same album, "On the Ginza," by Shorter, refers to a shopping area or district of Tokyo, and reveals not only Shorter's knowledge of Tokyo (the Jazz Messengers performed there), but also a personal interest in Japan. Moving on, the song features a strong, funky head with the aforementioned thunder of Blakey, particularly on the nice drum work. Nothing overtly "Oriental" appears here, too, another positive sign. Shorter's solo is also uniquely Shorter, bursting forth from the hard bop funk to play around the head with Blakey adding elements of his African-influenced percussion and well-placed 'thunder' and 'tremors.' Likewise, Freddie Hubbard's solo keeps things straight ahead, with no 'exotic' flair or touches, but, in line with Blakey's drumming and the funky head, a busy street or area of a city on a hectic day. Cedar Walton's brilliant piano solo ends things nicely, with perfect rhythmic accompaniment throughout from Blakey and Reggie Workman. Simple, funky, catchy, and fun.

As for Shorter's other work with "Japanese" or "Eastern" themes, "Infant Eyes," "Miyako," "Mahjong," and "Oriental Folk Song," obvious "Eastern" and "Japanese" lines do arise, though Miyako, like "Infant Eyes," is inspired by Shorter's biracial daughter, and not "Japanese" sounding at all but a father's love song for his daughter. Pure, lush beauty here. Shorter's "exotic Oriental" pieces are quite moving, with elements of the blues in "Oriental Folk Song," an ancient, Chinese majestic sound in "Mahjong,"and quite simply, mastery of post-bop in "House of Jade." I am sure Shorter has recorded more "Asian-themed" jazz tone poems, as I would consider them to be, but, they primarily escape simplistic jazz 'exoticism' in the works of someone such as Cal Tjader and his pseudo-Latin jazz flourishes. Moreover, like Coltrane and McCoy Tyner, one detects an element spiritual universalism in the music of Shorter, which often takes the form of homage to African and Asian cultures, bossa nova, and the magic in everyday life through mythology, darkness in the night, and fantasy. Thus, Shorter's forays into Japan and East Asian cultural and musical flavors, as well as his other broader interests and ties to African-American and African-derived influences (listen to Juju, or his work on The Freedom Rider with Blakey and Lee Morgan to see how his jazz connected to the Black Freedom Movement) and an aesthetic that, like Coltrane's, often engaged in a force of spirituality (though with stronger composing skills than Coltrane) that was grounded in quasi-ecumenism in regards to appropriating spirituality for an inclusive purposes. I wonder how many Japanese jazz fans of Shorter are aware of his debts to Japan in particular and East Asia more generally?