Wayne Shorter on "Eighty-One"
Photo by Mattia Luigi Nappi Wayne Shorter's solo over "Eighty-One" f rom E.S.P. (1965) surprised me the first time I heard it: raw, direct, and completely unaffected expression, which probably applies to most instances of Wayne's playing over the 50 or so years. As I've written previously, it took me a long time to accept Wayne's style of playing for what it is, which to my ears rejects certain conventional contemporary notions of great saxophone playing in favor of stylistic choices that might initially come across as a lack of technical control, but actually reveal a deep sense of wisdom and attention to detail. A writing analogy comes to mind, i.e. , perhaps counterintuitively, it's harder to write a sentence that breaks grammatical and stylistic norms but functions effectively in its purpose than a sentence that fulfills the basic, received rules of grammar and style and succeeds. When I think of my favorite prose writers (Joan Didion, DFW),...