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Alright here goes.
4. Night Dreamer 1964 Blue Note 1964
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Night_Dreamer.jpg
Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone
Lee Morgan – trumpet
McCoy Tyner – piano
Reggie Workman – bass
Elvin Jones – drums
Although I was generally pretty familiar with his Blue Note material at least through SuperNova, there are certain albums I've spent more vs less time with, and this one is definitely on the less list, and it's been a pleasure to revisit and really dig into.
A few people have said what a leap it is, and I totally agree, in every sense -- compositionally, sonically, improvisationally, band interplay, even the cover art. This is kind of an archetypal early to mid 60s Blue Note record. From the very start it almost has the feeling of someone who went off to live on a mountain for a couple of years to develop themselves and finally came down changed.
The tile track is gorgeous, strong, well-constructed. My kids heard it and said the melody reminded them a little of Ode to Joy, although of course it does the very Wayne Shorter thing of taking a fairly simple melodic/harmonic idea to start with but then taking a sharp left turn.
Wayne opens his solo on Night Dreamer much more confidently than he played on the prior records. I almost think of a shofar blast or someone shouting a sermon. He has ideas, he plays with the melody cleverly, it's interesting and assured the whole way through, and the interplay with the band is fantastic. Elvin Jones was such a great listener, just in constant conversation with the improvisers. Lee Morgan sounds great too - not quite as inventive a player as Wayne but makes a good foil to him here and echoes Wayne's approach of short, definitive phrases. Tyner/Workman/Jones is just one of the great all-time rhythm sections, incredible synergy, communication, such a unit. Tyner's solos are just classic Tyner solos, don't really know what else to say about them. He does his thing and I love his thing.
I keep reading or hearing that Wayne was criticized early for being a Coltrane wannabe or something, but I find that so hard to hear even as he plays with Coltrane's band - hard to imagine someone sounding less like Coltrane on tenor while playing with that band. Coltrane is sheets of sound, infinite permutations of harmony squeezed into a tight space. Shorter is a minimalist by comparison.
Wayne's compositional and melodic ideas become simplified and stripped down a bit vs the earlier records, although I've noticed a thread throughout is that he liked to create a little bit of ambiguity about the tonal center of the piece (although that's not that true about the title track here).
RVG + Blue Note - after listening to those Vee-Jay releases I really appreciate what they achieved in sound. They give the music so much depth and fullness.
Oriental Folk Song is a great tune as well, I could say a lot of the same I said about the first track in terms of the soloists and the band.
Virgo is incredibly lyrical as is his playing on it - you can almost hear a singer singing words to it. FWIW, I noticed this is by far the most played track on the record on Spotify (like 13m plays vs the next being 1m) -- wondering if it was used in some soundtrack or something. I love how the chord changes move too, I feel like they're a little surprising every time. Def a good example of deliberate ambiguity about tonal center. Something about it makes me think of being in a dim room where the mood lighting keeps gradually changing color.
Black Nile - I kind of find the intro on this one annoying but then it settles into a nice hard bop melody/arrangement. I guess Shorter's fiery solo on this one is the closest he gets to sounding Coltrane-ish, but the ideas are really pretty different musically.
Charcoal Blues is a strong track but I just don't have that much to say about it. Love the suspense build in Armageddon before the solos come in. Generally this is just a band that holds your attention every second, there's just so much energy and interaction at all times, no one ever phones it in.
Night Dreamer and Virgo are the big standouts for me, followed by Oriental Folk Song
dispatches from the future:
- if you're worried about getting bogged down in the '80s, it may comprise his weirdest solo material
- atlantis is quickly becoming my favorite shorter record after speak no evil and native dancer: slick, smooth, way more composed than improvised... like symphonic jazz without the symphony? chamber jazz? but with state of the art 1985 production so every instrument sounds hyperreal
- if he were any other musician, the work with the danilo perez/john patitucci/brian blade quartet would be the peak of his career, and it still might be
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 22 March 2023 16:42 (one year ago) link
eight months pass...