Coltrane, Miles, Wayne, and that Modern Sound - Part 2 - Wayne

The enduring legacy of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Wayne Shorter is undisputed in the jazz world. Each contributed greatly to the revolution in jazz in the 1960's, forming, defining, and expanding what is widely regarded as the height of jazz music. In this second of a 3-part series of blog posts, I will explore each in turn.

"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."
Herbie Hancock, speaking about Shorter's compositional role in the Second Miles Davis Quintet

Shorter is not only one of jazz's best composers, but one of its best players as well. John Coltrane, exiting tenor player of Miles' first quintet, suggested him to Miles as a replacement and, after four years of working with various other tenor saxophone players, Miles finally hired Wayne.

Miles was one of the originators of modal jazz, a type of jazz which is organized in sections where one chord serves as the harmony for many measures. Composing in this similar vein but expanding the technique, shorter wrote many pieces with one dominant harmony but many chords, finding interesting and often chromatic ways of reinforcement. For example, instead of playing a D minor 7th chord for eight bars in a row, Shorter would perhaps compose a D minor 7th chord and then chords that quickly take us a way from D minor 7th, and then back again, without ever really leaving the feel of D minor.

The result are tunes that groove, move along in a definite path, but at the same time feel free and spacious. Check out Deluge, Black Nile, or Mahjong. 

He also wrote many tunes that have changes that function modally, but that have a chordal rhythm that is much more rapid than that of most modal tunes. These tunes are like giant tapestries with layers and rows of color that change as one moves one's eye across. As the chords move by, the subtle chromatic ways the notes change are very colorful. Check out Speak No Evil or El Gaucho or Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum (which is a great example; see if you can hear the bluesy progression and feel change in the middle of the tune's form).