WAYNE SHORTER, R.I.P. Jazz great has died

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So far, this has been the best article on his passing today:  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/arts/music/wayne-shorter-dead.html

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With the exception of the all-Miles composed Filles De Kiliminjaro album, and the 2nd Classic Quintet's first studio LP E.S.P., on which he contributed only one composition, Shorter would write 50% or more of the tracks on the remaining studio LP's by that line-up.   In the mid-70's when the previously unreleased Water Babies came out - all but one track being Shorter tunes - it was a real breath of fresh air.  Shorter had worked those compositions out on his Blue Note solo albums when they went unreleased by Columbia.  Tellingly, this was Davis's best-selling record in several years.

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Shorter - "one of the great contemporary musical minds" as Blumenthal (and many others) described him in 1979 - was a major writing contributor while he was in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers - besides his ripping tenor playing, it was for this reason Miles Davis finally lured him away to his own band in 1965.  His initial appearance on a Messenger's album - Au Theatre des Champs-Elysees - has him contributing a quarter of the material. Some records have him only as a player, such as the 1961 Jazz Messengers! album or 1964's Kyoto, but the others contain 20% to 50% his material: A Night In Tunisia, Someone In Love, Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, The Big Beat, The Witch Doctor, Buhania's Delight, Mosaic, The Freedom Rider, Three Blind Mice, Caravan, Ugetsu, Free for All.  The 1961 album, Roots & Herbs, is composed entirely of Shorter tunes.
 

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During the sessions for Miles Davis' In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew albums, long-time associates Shorter and Joe Zawinul became interested in pursuing certain directions explored on these records, and along with Czech bass-player Miroslav Vitous, formed one of the first "fusion" bands, Weather Report.
Personnel changed often within the rhythm section over the years with Vitous leaving after a couple of years. While after the fourth album, Mysterious Traveller, Zawinul came to dominate the band, in the early days Shorter's writing consisted of 50% of their material, and during the later, much-less-interesting, more commercial days of the group, still stretched out in concert with his playing.

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Some of the sessions Tyner played on as a sideman - sometimes contributing material, such as Shere Khan, the Tiger on the Santana album.

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Amongst many extremely fine solo albums, there is one that is fractionally the greatest that belongs in every fan of Jazz home collection.  Shorter and company break through onto the cutting edge for this one, yet remain extremely listenable: