Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter
By Michelle Mercer
Tarcher/Penguin, 272 pp., $24.95
When it comes to creating music, Wayne Shorter has a particularly unique way of looking at things. “Music is like a piece of clay. You get inside it, make a cubbyhole, and then punch your way out.” In a career that has spanned nearly 50 years, the saxophonist and composer has molded the sound and shape of cutting-edge jazz as few have ever done. If there’s one thing you take away from Footprints, it’s the extent to which Shorter is an extraordinary musical visionary with a mind that seems to function in another dimension. At one juncture, when asked what time it is, Shorter launches off on the relativity of time and its relation to the cosmos. As a highly influential improvisor and arguably the most important jazz composer of the past half century, Shorter has been a wellspring of creativity. A colleague noted that the multitude of standard compositions for which he’s widely known, including “Nefertiti,” “Sanctuary,” “Infant Eyes,” and of course, “Footprints,” is only the tip of the iceberg of his overall output. Michelle Mercer’s thoroughly researched, well-paced book follows Shorter through his entire career: as Young Lion and musical director of Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, as principle composer and front-line foil in the incomparable Miles Davis Quintet of the mid/late Sixties, and as pioneer in Davis’ first electric band. She covers the lifespan of fusion juggernaut Weather Report, collaborations with superstars Milton Nascimento, Joni Mitchell, and Carlos Santana, and finishes in the present tense with Shorter coming full circle in his current acoustic quartet. We learn how the movies, personal tragedy, and his Buddhist faith have influenced Shorter’s music. More time spent on his tenure with Davis wouldn’t have been unreasonable, and a discography, even an incomplete one, should have been a necessity. Yet for a book that’s been as long overdue as its subject is elusive, the wait has been well worth it.
This article appears in January 28 • 2005.