Wayne Shorter - Without a Net: NPR First Listen

[xybert]

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/27/170099...-without-a-net

Album is released on February 5th... i've ordered my copy and am going to wait but for those who want an early listen: enjoy!

[jcam_44]

I also pre-ordered this, and am avoiding listening to it until I get the cd in the mail

[jkelman]

Read my post, with a link to my just-published review of the album, here.

[KBerube80]

This is absolutely phenomenal.

[Justin V]

We will be doing a giveaway for Without a Net, so keep an eye out for that. I caught the quartet in Detroit this past summer, but I haven't heard any of their albums.

[Ian Thumwood]

I've seen this band on about 4 occasions and in a version with Herbie Hancock too. For me, there is simply not enough of this band available on disc and the three live sessions (plus part of the studio album "Alegria") remain some of the best jazz put on record since 2000. I can't think of many other bands who play so much music per square inch but this record is something of a treat for it includes a wind ensemble on the extended track "Pegasus." I caught this combination live when they toured a few years back but it is staggering how good this work is with repeated listens.

I've got some big hopes with some forth-coming records by the likes of David Binney, John Hollenbeck and Nicole Mitchell due out shortly. However, I can't see anything topping the Wayne Shorter for record of the year in 2103 . Shame that the album cover is so unappealing but the music is the absolute dog's bollocks.

[xybert]

Originally Posted by Ian Thumwood

I've seen this band on about 4 occasions and in a version with Herbie Hancock too. For me, there is simply not enough of this band available on disc and the three live sessions (plus part of the studio album "Alegria") remain some of the best jazz put on record since 2000. I can't think of many other bands who play so much music per square inch but this record is something of a treat for it includes a wind ensemble on the extended track "Pegasus." I caught this combination live when they toured a few years back but it is staggering how good this work is with repeated listens.

I've got some big hopes with some forth-coming records by the likes of David Binney, John Hollenbeck and Nicole Mitchell due out shortly. However, I can't see anything topping the Wayne Shorter for record of the year in 2103 . Shame that the album cover is so unappealing but the music is the absolute dog's bollocks.

I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive in the post. It seriously brings me down each time i come home after a hard day and it's not waiting in my letter box; if i knew i would be waiting this long i would've partaken of the NPR First Listen

I've heard nothing but good things about this album; can't wait!

By the way, the new Hollenbeck album is amazing. Can't gather my thoughts at the moment but at first i was like "this is nice!" but on subsequent listens my jaw has well and truly hit the floor.

[xybert]

Originally Posted by xybert

I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive in the post. It seriously brings me down each time i come home after a hard day and it's not waiting in my letter box; if i knew i would be waiting this long i would've partaken of the NPR First Listen

Well, funnily enough the album was waiting for me in my letterbox when i got home the day i posted the above.

I've had quite a few listens now and i'm still trying to get my head around it. I really like it. It's different to Beyond The Sound Barrier. For me Without A Net is not the earth shattering album i was expecting, and that of course is on me. It's been an eight year gap, and expectations have kind of built up. WAN sounds like the type of album they would release if they were putting out an album every 18 months or so. It just happens to have been 8 years rather than 18 months. It's a really good album, but not the second coming.

Some random thoughts:

For me there is a really strong flavour of Shorter's albums like High Life and his eighties albums running through WAN (especially compared to BTSB).

It would be really, really interesting to have had some albums between BTSB and WAN, if for no other reason than to hear the progression that bridges the gap between the two.

Now that we have the album, and it's basically a really good Wayne Shorter album, i really REALLY wish that they had recorded and put more albums out.

[Ian Thumwood]

Xybert

I've read somewhere that Wayne Shorter has an aversion to putting out records and I suppose that fans of his music can be gald that this effort has seen the light of day. Having played it on numerous occasions, I think that this is a sensational record but am interested in your comment that "Pegasus" reminds you of some of the material from the album "Highlife. The same thought crossed my mind and this 1990's album passed me by at the time as I was no really in to Wayne Shorter until I heard the quartet play live for the first time in 2001. Having snapped up a copy of "Highlife" only last year, I think that there is some really good writing on this record and was a bit ashamed that I had never gone beyond exploring the old Blue Notes / Miles album from the 60's regarding exploring Shorter's music. The fact that he was still dabbling in fusion in the 1990's and i hated "Pnatom Navigator" when I heard it made me reulctant to explore his work when the likes of Joe Henderson, Mike Brecker, Joe Lovano, etc seemed to be my indicative of where jazz was twenty years ago.

[xybert]

Originally Posted by Ian Thumwood

Xybert

I've read somewhere that Wayne Shorter has an aversion to putting out records and I suppose that fans of his music can be gald that this effort has seen the light of day. Having played it on numerous occasions, I think that this is a sensational record but am interested in your comment that "Pegasus" reminds you of some of the material from the album "Highlife. The same thought crossed my mind and this 1990's album passed me by at the time as I was no really in to Wayne Shorter until I heard the quartet play live for the first time in 2001. Having snapped up a copy of "Highlife" only last year, I think that there is some really good writing on this record and was a bit ashamed that I had never gone beyond exploring the old Blue Notes / Miles album from the 60's regarding exploring Shorter's music. The fact that he was still dabbling in fusion in the 1990's and i hated "Pnatom Navigator" when I heard it made me reulctant to explore his work when the likes of Joe Henderson, Mike Brecker, Joe Lovano, etc seemed to be my indicative of where jazz was twenty years ago.

Hi Ian,

Yeah from what i've read Shorter doesn't enjoy the recording process, and believe me i'm thankful that we get anything at all (from any artist working today to be honest. It really is miraculous to me and i'm constantly counting my blessings as a listener; i don't take it for granted that there will always be a 'next' album by my favourite artists).

I didn't single out Pegasus but it definitely is a track that has a bit of High Life flavour running through it. The opening bars of SS Golden Mean and Plaza Real both sound straight off Atlantis, although they venture elsewhere and obviously with out the smooth production (i refer to some of Shorter's 80s/90s work as 'Smooth Avant-Garde'; the smooth production will put many off but the songs themselves and Shorter's playing are really off the planet).

I quite like a lot of 80s fusion (still haven't warmed to 80s Miles), i think partly because as a kid of the eighties i loved videogames and many of the Japanese soundtrack composers of the time were heavily influenced by Jazz and Fusion of the time.

Anyway, i hope my post didn't come across as too unenthusiastic; i really dig Without A Net, i actually think it's fantastic, i'm just still trying to get my thoughts straight on it

Cheers.