This fifth part of our ongoing Wayne Shorter Celebration series features masterful performances by Wayne and his quartet, filmed during his residency in April 2017. Wayne has led a legendary, near-mythic career spanning more than half a century that included monumental memberships in Art Blakey’s star-making Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis’ iconic 1960s quintet, and the fusion superband Weather Report in addition to an incomparable path as a leader.
The NEA Jazz Master, 2015 GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and 2018 Kennedy Center Honoree is, simply, the music’s most influential living instrumentalist and composer. His longevity as a creative force isn’t as astounding as the fact that he’s spent the past two decades leading his most prodigious and consequential band with pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade.
For this Fridays at Five stream, the masterful drummer and SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Terri Lyne Carrington replaces Blade, bringing her singular approach to Shorter’s music that she’s cultivated over a three-decade association with him including appearances on his 1988 album Joy Ryder, 1995’s High Life, and 2003’s Alegria.