Sending a message
To be released just under a fortnight before Wayne Shorter’s 80th birthday in August Motéma has announced details of a major release by David Weiss, whose 12-piece live album Endangered Species: The Music of Wayne Shorter is now confirmed for release by the Harlem-based label. Trumpeter and arranger Weiss, known these days for his work with The Cookers an extraordinarily gifted band that has successfully ignited renewed interest in hard bop, has written immaculately spirited arrangements early listens strongly suggest. The recording made at the Jazz @Lincoln Center Columbus Circle jazz club Dizzy’s one night during an April 2012 residency sees an aggregation of top heartland hard bop-and-beyond players including Ravi Coltrane, the Strickland twins Marcus and EJ, Jeremy Pelt, and Geri Allen in performance.
Wayne Shorter: 80 in August
Tunes are ‘Nellie Bly’ a tune Wayne wrote for the Jazz Messengers that appeared early in the Newark man’s career on Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers: Live In Copenhagen 1959; the classic ‘Fall’ Miles with the second great quintet recorded on Manhattan’s East 30th Street in 1967 for what became Nefertiti; ‘Mr. Jin’ from the Messengers’ Indestructible album released in 1965; Weiss’ tune ‘The Turning Gate’; Wayne’s ‘Eva’ from the Messengers’ 1963 album Ugetsu; and the more recent composition ‘Prometheus Unbound’. Weiss’ band with the leader conducting and on trumpet is: Tim Green alto saxophone; Marcus Strickland tenor and soprano sax; Ravi Coltrane tenor sax; Norbert Stachel baritone sax and bass clarinet; Diego Urcola trumpet; Jeremy Pelt trumpet; Joe Fiedler trombone; Steve Davis trombone; Geri Allen piano; Dwayne Burno bass; and EJ Strickland drums. To be listened to in conjunction with ‘Pegasus’!