Wayne Shorter – Live at Monteux, 1996
Performers: Wayne Shorter, sax; James Beard. Keyboards; David Gilmore, guitar; Alphonso Johnson, bass; Rodney Holmes, drums
Program: On the Milky Way Express, At the Fair, Over Shadow Hill Way, Children of the Night, Endangered Species
Studio: Eagle Eye Media EE39178-9
Video: 16:9 color
Audio: English DTS 5.1, DD 5.1, PCM Stereo
Extras: Bonus sel. Introduced by Quincy Jones: Footprints; On the Milky Way Express; Pinocchio; Pee Wee/Theme
Length: 105 minutes
Rating: ****
Another in the Eagle series of video concerts by leading voices in jazz who have appeared at the acclaimed annual Swiss jazz festival. This time we are privileged to see and hear a legendary jazz figure with links to the founding fathers of jazz. Wayne Shorter played with Maynard Ferguson and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers before joining Miles Davis’ band in 1964. He was the co-founder with Joe Zawinul of Weather Report, and more recently has been playing with an acoustic quartet setup.
The selections here are a bit more subtle and less electronic than the work with Weather Report. Shorter switches between tenor and soprano sax on different selections, which is a nice change. A couple of the numbers, such as the closing short Endangered Species, are real showpieces for the soprano. Both the playing and the camera work are fairly straightforward here, nothing that wild going on. The bonus tracks are from 1991 and 92 and show Shorter in a different environment – Herbie Hancock at the keyboards plus the great bassist Stanley Clarke. Frankly I felt those four tunes were musically better than the main program.
– John Henry
