Wayne Shorter - The Soothsayer

One of the most innovative players and writers to emerge during the 1960s, Wayne Shorter's string of Blue Note albums were the finest of his career. The Soothsayer, which was not originally released until the late 1970s, would have been considered one of the top jazz albums of 1965 if it had come out at that time. While Shorter plays in a three-horn sextet (with inspired solos by Freddie Hubbard and James Spaulding) that is similar in instrumentation to the Jazz Messengers, his jazz home during 1959-64, his music is much more advanced and extremely original. No one else could have written such tunes as “Lost,” “Angola” and “Lady Day.” Shorter's playing and logic, like that of Thelonious Monk, follows its own logic. While this music is unique and futuristic, Wayne Shorter on The Soothsayer also points the way for modern jazz of the next 45 years. To say that he was ahead of his time would be a major understatement.