Time Off

The Jazz Messengers: Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Cedar Walton (piano), Reggie Workman (bass) and Art Blakey (drums). From the album Ugetsu (1963).

In 1970, Shorter joined Joe Zawinul and Miroslav Vitous to form Weather Report. Shorter played mostly soprano saxophone, which sounded better alongside electronic instruments. His playing became softer, more melodic and increasingly subordinated to Zawinul’s criteria. Many musicians went through this band, but the revolutionary electric bassist Jaco Pastorius must be highlighted. Shorter also participated in the V.S.O.P. group with former members of the group that Miles Davis had in the mid-1960s.

He left Weather Report in 1985, continued playing jazz fusion and toured with Carlos Santana. After Miles Davis’ death, he recorded an album to honor him with Wallace Roney, Herbie Hancock, John Carter and Tony Williams. In 2000 he formed his first acoustic quartet playing his own compositions, with a very good reception from both fans and critics.

This theme is explosive and goes at full speed. Fuller starts his solo by perfectly linking the phrases and keeping time. Shorter follows with a torrent of energy playing with impressive precision. Then Hubbard appears with a scandalous speech without leaving a gap between the notes. Then Walton enters a competition to see who is faster with impeccably executed phrases and finally the group plays the re-exposure of the theme.