The Report: Busy Days Ahead for Shorter

The 15 years Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter spent together as co-leaders of Weather Report established them as guiding forces in the first and most influential group in what might be called the electronic jazz/rock fusion genre.

Since the two came to a parting of the ways in 1985, Zawinul has continued, first using the name Weather Update and more recently the Zawinul Syndicate. But what, in the meanwhile, has happened to Wayne Shorter?

“I’m doing a lot of different things, mainly because long tours, back to back, are too rough on the health,” Shorter said. “So I’m getting work that keeps me close to home.”

The breakup, he says, was amicable. “Joe and I sat down and talked about whether we should spend another 15 years together or just move out and be our own selves. As a group, we had undergone a certain amount of pulling this way and that. There were essentially three of us--Joe and I and the bassist, originally Miroslav Vitous, later others including Jaco Pastorius. So people were only getting one-third of me, one-third of Joe and of the bassist.”

There was speculation at the time that Zawinul, as the more aggressive figure, had dominated the group, leaving Shorter in a lesser role both as saxophonist and composer. According to Shorter, the instruments themselves were responsible.

“The synthesizer is a very dominant instrument; everything winds up sounding as if it were written by the keyboardist. The next instrument that covers a wide range of acceptability is the bass.” Shorter, playing mainly soprano sax, seemed at time to have about as much impact as a piccolo. So, he says, “We decided that to be fair to ourselves, we would not continue for another 15 years.”

The friendship has endured. “I had dinner at his home recently. We fax letters and music to each other; we like to look back and talk about the things you and I are talking about now.”

The best development in Shorter’s career since the separation, he says, is the probability that he will compose for a movie. “I had a call from Island Pictures about a film tentatively titled ‘Aunt Julia,’ with Peter Falk and Barbara Hershey. It takes place in New Orleans in the 1940s and ‘50s. I’m supposed to get together soon with the director and the musical director.”

Although he took part in the film “Round Midnight” (ironically, a blues solo on the sound track won him a composer’s Grammy, though it was ad-libbed rather than composed), Shorter has never really written music directly for a feature film. Herbie Hancock, one of three musicians who shared credit for that award, now wants to involve him in a new project.

“A producer asked whether Herbie and I would collaborate on the sound track for a film starring Tina Turner. I’m reading the script now; it’s called ‘Vida’ and it has a nightclub atmosphere. So I’m hoping these film deals will keep me busy for quite a while,” Shorter said.

This will be a welcome change. Shorter was on the road with one group or another during almost all of 1985-87. “I was everywhere--all over Europe, and of course Japan, Hong Kong, you name it,” he said. “We toured the Far East as part of a show with Miles’ (Davis) group and three other bands. It got pretty hectic at times.

“I had some good people in my bands, but there’s no complete recording of any one of them,” Shorter said. “Terri Lyne Carrington was my drummer for a year or so, including three European tours. Marilyn Mazur, the percussionist from Denmark, who worked with Miles Davis, has played with me, but not on records.”

Since leaving Zawinul, Shorter has floated freely between straight-ahead and fusion situations, as well as between jazz and pop assignments. “There’s a single on the air now called ‘The End of the Innocence,’ which I recorded with Don Henley; and I just recorded a cut with a group called Go West, from England,” he said.

Helping him to spend more time off the road is Shorter’s fast growing popularity as a composer. Some of the pieces he wrote during his years with Miles Davis (1964-70) are becoming standards. “The song most recorded by other people is ‘Footprints,’ and I guess ‘Nefertiti’ would be next. I recorded them with Miles in 1966-67.”

A student in Alabama who has been working on a doctoral thesis analyzing Shorter’s contributions, estimates that at last count, there were 159 recordings of his originals. Some, like “Speak No Evil,” Lady Day,” “Adam’s Apple” and “Miyako,” were introduced on some of his many Blue Note albums as a leader, overlapping with his Davis incumbency.

Shorter’s decision to concentrate on writing will not preclude occasional outside ventures. “Right now,” he says, “Carlos Santana and Herbie Hancock and I are talking about doing something together in the spring of 1990.

“Not long ago, Carlos and I did the so-called jazz circuit--10 days in the U.S. and three weeks in Europe. We played to record crowds--up to 20,000 people in places like Pori, Finland.

“We overheard some of the managers saying this would never work, that Carlos was going to jeopardize his own audience by slicing into the jazz world. But it wasn’t true; in fact, it was so great that we’re eager to do it again.

“Nobody needs to infringe on anyone’s territory. It all has to do with self-help. That and self-expression, yes; selfishness, never.”