November 27, 2012
The legendary jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter will make his triumphant return to Blue Note Records after 43 years with the February 5, 2013 release of Without A Net, his searing new album with his long-running Quartet featuring pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade. Shorter has revealed the album cover artwork for Without A Net, which features drawings by Shorter himself.
The Quartet has also announced 2013 U.S. tour dates including major concert events in New York City and Los Angeles. On February 1, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Quartet will perform four compositions by Shorter alongside works by Beethoven and Ives at Carnegie Hall. On February 9, the Quartet will be appearing at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles for the world premiere of Gaia, a newly commissioned work that Shorter composed for Esperanza Spalding and the LA Phil. The Quartet will also perform at Chicago’s Symphony Center (June 7) and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC (September 26). See below for a full list of confirmed tour dates.
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Shorter—who will be entering his 80th year in 2013—first recorded for Blue Note in 1959 as the precocious 26-year-old tenor saxophonist (and prolific composer) in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, which brought him to the attention of label founder Alfred Lion who eventually signed him to his own recording deal. Shorter went on to make a spectacular run of classic albums for Blue Note between 1964-1970 including Night Dreamer, Juju, Speak No Evil, Adam’s Apple, Schizophrenia, and Super Nova during a period of time that also paralleled Shorter’s years with Miles Davis, first as a member of the trumpeter’s trailblazing quintet, and later as a part of Davis’ early fusion masterpieces.
Without A Net is a 9-track musical thrill ride that consists of live recordings from the Wayne Shorter Quartet’s European tour in late 2011, the one exception being the 23-minute tone poem “Pegasus” which features the quartet with The Imani Winds recorded at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The album features six new Shorter compositions, as well as new versions of his tunes “Orbits” (from Miles Davis’ Miles Smiles album) and “Plaza Real” (from the Weather Report album Procession). The quartet also reinvents the title song from the 1933 musical film Flying Down To Rio, which film buffs (such as Shorter) know as the first on-screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
WAYNE SHORTER QUARTET – 2013 U.S. TOUR DATES
Feb. 1 Carnegie Hall New York, NY
Feb. 9 Walt Disney Concert Hall Los Angeles, CA
Apr. 12 Schermerhorn Symphony Center Nashville, TN
June 7 Symphony Center Chicago, IL
Sept. 26 Kennedy Center: Eisenhower Theatre Washington DC
Nov. 2 Orchestra Hall Detroit, MI
