The Young Wayne Shorter: Genius Child

Source: Mercer's Footprints

Young Wayne Shorter, product of Newark's Ironbound district and a working-class family. His creative talents were encouraged by his mother, who married Shorter's father and moved to Newark from Philadelphia. Shorter also attended the same church in Newark that Sarah Vaughan sang for her in her youth. Also, Shorter went to NYU in music education while his brother, Alan, also a musician, was a friend of Amiri Baraka and went to Howard.

Shorter was initially drawn to painting but switched to music after listening to bop on the radio in the 1940s. He began on the clarinet but later moved on to tenor saxophone. The legend was known as the "Newark Flash" by New York musicians across the river and was always a versatile musician, even at mambos in the 1950s! Shorter opened for mambo legend Perez Prado once and had Celia Cruz and Tito Puente approving his chops in Latin music. Indeed, check out his skills at latin funk on "Tom Thumb" with its bossa nova influences. Shorter never lost his touch for funky and Latin rhythms.

Shorter also composed and recorded for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the second Miles Davis Quintet, Weather Report, and his own solo sessions, my favorites being Speak No Evil and Juju, influenced by Coltrane yet uniquely Shorter. Indeed, this socially awkward genius reminds me of myself in some ways. Enjoy "Footprints." And the lovely "Miyako" has been one of my favorite jazz ballads and tributes (to his daughter of the same name) I have ever had the pleasure to hear (and that includes "Lester Left Town" for Lester Young).