Wayne Shorter & Guests Shine On One Of Sax Legend’s Final Performances Via ‘Live At The Detroit Jazz Festival’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Candid Records is releasing the one-time-only performance of a jazz supergroup captured at The Detroit Jazz Festival in 2017.  While September of 2022 will be an important month for drummer Terri Lyne Carrington with a landmark release of new music due, listeners should not pass this one up. Not only is it one of the last live dates from Wayne Shorter, but his performance, especially his lyrical interplay with Esperanza Spalding’s vocals is remarkable. Joining those three is keyboardist Leo Genovese, who replaced the late Geri Allen, who was originally to be part of the group. 

The elite talents of these four made this performance special as they had little time to rehearse, sallying forth with the utmost trust in each other and blurring the lines between composition and improvisation, ensemble passages, and soloing. There are just five pieces here, six if one purchases the double viny; LP version.  Yet the Shorter/Spalding composition “Endangered Species,” which courses through many moods and textures runs beyond 21 minutes and is the best example of free-form exploration. The piece begins with Spalding plucking before Genovese hits dissonant chords and Carrington begins rumbling. Shorter darts in and out on his soprano, resembling a frightened creature trying to escape its hunter. As his lines cry out from his horn, Genovese answers on the piano almost in a call-and-response mode.  The music morphs to a bare hush as Spalding enters with her dramatic, clear-toned, and sustained high-pitched vocals.

The next sequence, coming about midway through features a searching Shorter followed by a thunderous piano statement from Genovese before the two engage in a lively conversation. Carrington drives them to a faster tempo, which reaches even more frantic moods than the earlier Shorter-Genovese dialogue only to have the pace and dynamics recede again for Spalding’s stirring vocals, leading to an explosive climax. It’s a jaw-dropping performance not only due to the group interplay but Shorter especially shines.

The opener, Shorter’s “Someplace Called Where” along with his “Midnight in Carlatta’s Hair” may well be his best in terms of accompanying a vocalist. Considering that Milton Nascimento, Lionel Loueke, and Joni Mitchell are in that conversation, it’s more striking given this late stage of his career. Spalding’s long echoing vocal notes are so complementary to Shorter’s own style (playing tenor here), it often sounds as if two horns are on the front line and we are hearing a quintet rather than a quartet. As Spalding and Shorter meld their sounds together in the last sequence to the shimmering piano and cascading drums, the harmonics are otherworldly. 

The other selections run shorter in length, beginning with Milton Nascimento’s ballad “Encontros e Despidedas,” (Meetings and Goodbyes) sung dramatically by Spalding, with Shorter and Genovese brightly soloing. The tune segues easily into Geri Allen’s “Drummers Song,” obviously featuring Carrington, who impresses in playful conversation with Genovese until first a whirling, spiraling Shorter pops in on soprano with Spalding then echoing some of his lines in vocalese. Shorter’s “Midnight in Carlatta’s Hair” directly follows in a haunting fashion with the saxophonist and Spalding again serving as a simile of a two-horn frontline in sterling interplay and unison passages.  The bonus track “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made of (A Conversation)” is more of a curiosity piece but like the rest of the material, it is unpredictable (they even say – “like a good novelist, you don’t know what’s going to happen”) and has its share of spontaneity. 

This is, like billed, truly one-of-a-kind performance. It’s a “must listen” for Wayne Shorter fans and jazz fans alike. 

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