LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wayne Shorter, an influential jazz innovator whose lyrical, complex jazz compositions and pioneering saxophone playing sounded through more than half a century of American music, has died. He was 89.
Shorter died Thursday surrounded by his family in Los Angeles, said Alisse Kingsley, a representative for the multi-Grammy winner. No cause of death was given.
“Visionary composer, saxophonist, visual artist, devout Buddhist, devoted husband, father and grandfather Wayne Shorter has embarked on a new journey as part of his extraordinary life — departing the earth as we know it in search of an abundance of new challenges and creative possibilities,” a statement released by Kingsley said. It called him a gentle spirit who was “always inquisitive and constantly exploring.”
Shorter, a tenor saxophonist, made his debut in 1959 and would go on to be a foundational member of two of the most seminal jazz groups: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and the Miles Davis Quintet. Over the next eight decades, Shorter’s wide-spanning collaborations would include co-founding the ’70s fusion band Weather Report, some 10 album appearances with Joni Mitchell and further explorations with Carlos Santana and Steely Dan.
Many of Shorter’s textured and elliptical compositions — including “Speak No Evil,” “Black Nile,” “Footprints,” and “Nefertiti” — became modern jazz standards and expanded the harmonic horizons of jazz across some of its most fast-evolving eras.
Herbie Hancock once said of Shorter in Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet: “The master writer to me, in that group, was Wayne Shorter. He still is a master. Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didn’t get changed.”
Hancock praised Shorter for his musical expertise and leaving a special mark in his life.
“Wayne Shorter, my best friend, left us with courage in his…
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