Wayne Shorter - Triple Best Of (2009)

Though some will argue about whether ten-time Grammy winner Wayne Shorter's primary impact on jazz has been as a composer or as a saxophonist, few will dispute his importance as one of jazz's leading figures of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Though indebted to John Coltrane, with whom he practiced in the mid-'50s, Shorter eventually developed his own more succinct manner on the tenor horn, retaining the tough tone quality and intensity and, in later years, adding elements of funk. On soprano, Shorter is almost another player entirely, his lovely tone shining like a light beam, his sensibilities attuned more to lyrical thoughts, his choice of notes becoming more spare as his career unfolded. As a composer, he is best known for carefully conceived, complex, long-limbed, endlessly winding tunes, many of which have become jazz standards. Of his mid-'60s albums for Blue Note, most notably Juju and Night Dreamer, the composer and the saxophone stylist meet, showcasing provocative compositions and arrangements performed with both subtlety and force. During his two decades with the six-time Grammy-winning Weather Report from the late '60s through the mid-'80s, and on his solo jazz-funk recordings for Columbia and Verve in the late '80s and early '90s, Shorter showcased both poles of his writing persona -- the inimitable lyricist and the emboldened tonal seeker who utilized what he'd learned from jazz and applied it to open creative possibilities for funk, even as he sought inspiration from international musical traditions. As a horn player, Shorter's membership in V.S.O.P. revealed he'd continued to grow and experiment. With 2002's Footprints Live!, continued on 2003's Alegria, Shorter showcased a new acoustic quartet dedicated to performing his compositions. In the new century's second decade, Shorter re-signed to Blue Note.