Wayne Shorter

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Miles Davis, were never content with any particular direction, and always sought new ground.

Saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter belongs to the latter category. He made his first major impression on the jazz world in 1959, when he joined Art Blakey's famous Jazz Messengers and also recorded the first album under his own name. Five years later he joined the Miles Davis Quintet, perhaps the most adventurous and regular working jazz group of its day. The quintet explored the limits of modern jazz expression without abandoning traditional melody and harmony; it stretched time and timbre in novel ways, and reinvigorated the world of postbop. When Davis felt he had exhausted the possibilities of this manner of playing, he began to move in a different direction, incorporating rock elements, and Shorter moved along with him, embracing the new sounds. In 1971 he teamed up with pianist Joe Zawinul, another Davis alumnus, to form Weather Report, an amazingly successful group that lasted almost fifteen years, recording prolifically and touring all over the world. Although it clearly took its cue from the jazz-rock experiments of Davis, Weather Report was unique, developing its own amalgam of jazz, rock, Latin, and what would later be called world music, driven by the instrumental virtuosity and composing skills of the two leaders, as well as by a series of equally accomplished sidemen, including percussionist Airto Moreira and electric-bassist Jaco Pastorius.