It took me some time to be clear of how I wanted to move forward with my writing, but finally, I got an idea of how I want the new version of my blog to look like – I will go away from simply writing album reviews, but will still recommend a few I really like every time I write, but mainly I will either react to some current jazz affairs (see below some comments on the Wayne Shorter documentary on amazon prime video) or create one in a series of short artist portraits of European jazz musicians of the past. Having been around in the jazz scene for a while now (over 40 years to be precise), I met many artists and some of them have unfortunately passed away already. I can see now that some are almost forgotten, that new generations don’t know these names nor their music anymore and therefore I would like to re-introduce some of these musicians to my circle of friends and readers. I will start with artists I had the pleasure to meet and/or work with, and then go into musicians I like and/or most likely had seen perform. Work on the first portrait has started already, info material and music being collected, read and listened to and I am sure later this month I can start writing. Stay tuned.
‘Zero Gravity’, the three-part documentary on the life and music of the late saxophonist Wayne Shorter is a marvel in pictures and sound. It pays homage to Wayne the human being, who tried to express his humanity through his compositions and through the way he dealt with his fellow humans on a daily basis. What it makes clear is that Wayne developed his music by standing on the shoulders of giants … Art Blakey, Miles Davis – his most important mentors – and others like Coltrane, Zawinul, Hancock, etc. The work with Blakey and Davis made him grow as a composer and improviser, as they both allowed him the space to do so and nurtured his curiosity to go into the unknown in both areas. I would say that the development as an artist has gone hand in hand with his development as a human being, as his foray into the unknown musically made him discover deeper levels of his humanity as well. Buddhism helped him then to channel this experience into an understanding of the human species and the individual, that went far beyond what most of us know and feel. If you want to write music expressing your humanity, you must have a deeper understanding of it, an emotional knowledge, so you can compose (and perform) from a place universally understood. And Wayne could do that like few other composers and instrumentalists. He felt people on an emotional level and therefore could react to them in the most appropriate way. Having met Wayne myself numerous times, I felt that his ‘reading’ of other people didn’t get the exposure it deserved in the otherwise really well-done documentary.
Wayne Shorter left the world a huge legacy of compositions and recordings, some of them will only properly be understood in years to come. For the curious one, beside his early music, I would recommend the 3 CD plus comic book version of ‘Emanon’, his 2018 Blue Note release. Disc one has the Wayne Shorter Quartet (Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Brian Blade) perform some of Wayne’s compositions with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the other two CDs showcase the same quartet live in concert in their incredible way of creating music on the spot. Both highlight Wayne the composer and improviser and so reflecting on Wayne Shorter the human being. I would as well suggest to the interested to read the incredible biography of Wayne ‘Footprints’ by Michelle Mercer, who manged to capture Wayne’s essence in words.
At one point in the documentary, while at home, Wayne is wearing a baseball cap, which says ‘Saxophone Hero’ on the front and ‘All Time Top Human Being’ on the left side – whoever had this made for him got it absolutely right! From all the wisdom Wayne shared in the included interviews, I would like to end this little review with one statement I liked a lot: ‘The present moment is the only place where we can change the past and dictate the future…..’
A few new recordings I can recommend:
Tania Giannouli – Solo / An outstanding solo piano effort by the Greek composer and instrumentalist, emotional and touching, baring her most inner self to the listener. Impressive from beginning to end!
Rymden – Valleys& Mountains / It seems that this group is getting better and better! Bugge Wesseltoft, Dan Berglund & Magnus Öström are creating soundscapes and grooves and ambient environments the listener can get lost in. They make music in the tradition of the best piano trios, but as well of Weather Report, but taking it into today and making it all their own. Sublime album, which features John Scofield on one amazing track!
Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage / Merchant’s songs are little gems, that shine brighter the more you listen to them. Her voice soars over the excellent music and gives meaning to the emotions cladded in words. Great arrangements, a great band and an outstanding vocal performance by Merchant make this album standing out.
Christian Muthspiel & Orjazztra Vienna – La Melodia della Strada / A unique 2 CD set of this large ensemble (I stay away from big band in their context, as they are set up differently) performing the music written by Muthspiel as an homage to Federico Fellini and his movies. And as the movies, the music reflects life and death and all human expression and emotion. Great compositions and wonderful improvisations make this relevant listening in modern music.
Wulf's Music + Blog 