Celebrating Wayne Shorter's Juju
A Classic Returns, Celebrations Live Series Debuts, and Bootlegs Galore
With Blue Note dropping Juju as part of their Blue Note Classics reissue lineup this past week, they’ve completed the 1964 Wayne Shorter trifecta. Juju received mention in the context of Wayne’s astounding accomplishments throughout 1964 in a Substack post I wrote back in April:
But Juju deserves a longer moment in the spotlight, so let’s take a deeper look!
Wayne’s 1964 highlights include his three Blue Note dates as a leader, three more as a Jazz Messenger, joining the Miles Davis Quintet, and twenty new compositions—all in one year.
I’ve been meaning to take those old tax returns to the town shredder since March. Just sayin’. Somebody really should start a “Be Like Wayne” productivity podcast.
I love that each of Wayne’s ‘64 trifecta—Night Dreamer, Juju, and Speak No Evil—has a unique character. For those coming up the Wayne Shorter learning curve, I’ve often described Night Dreamer as Shorter’s love letter to hard-bop, Juju his homage to friend and mentor John Coltrane, and Speak No Evil his onramp to the freebop of Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet. For those who hold these albums close like old friends, that description is barely adequate—the profound depth of these records continues to reveal itself with every spin.
Of all the titles I previewed in this year’s Blue Note Tone Poet and Classics writeups, I heard more whoops and hollers of joy about Juju than any other. There hasn’t been a US vinyl pressing since 1985, and for reasons unclear, Juju earned its merit badge of scarcity faster than its ‘64 brethren. So I’m happy for those who can add a long-sought treasure to their library. For those wondering what’s so great about Juju, I’m glad you asked:
While the spirit of John Coltrane is a clear and welcome presence, Vive la différence: Wayne Shorter’s voyages don’t stray as far from home. Wayne traverses multiple routes and alternate pathways—variations of his beautifully written melodies and harmonic deviations—instead of long-range scenic routes. I’m not suggesting that Wayne’s playing here is conservative. His scope of ideas and emotions were as adventurous as Trane’s, but they held to a certain “Wayne Shorter logic,” which was qualitatively different. They both achieve liftoff, but each has a distinct idea about the flight path.
Pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Elvin Jones are all returning bandmates from Wayne’s Blue Note debut, Night Dreamer, recorded only a few months earlier. Together, they seamlessly transform from an advanced hard-bop quintet to a modal-fueled quartet, with Wayne’s compositions playing to everyone’s strengths. Tyner’s spiraling piano lines are inspiring and uplifting. Reggie Workman’s potent lines and sinewy grooves join Tyner in receiving the most significant benefit from the new Blue Note Classics edition, cutting through the mix with punch and clarity.
I can’t say enough about Elvin Jones, particularly his musicianship on the title track. Jones is fluid, perpetual motion—a riptide of mastery and propulsive rhythmic gamesmanship that remains my favorite of his performances on record.
Regarding the sound and general thoughts on this new Blue Note Classics edition, we did a shoot-out the other night against my 2009 Music Matters 45RPM pressing and 2011 Japanese Disk Union series mono pressing. Takeaways:
The Blue Note Classics pressing sounds excellent. It’s more forward and aggressive than Music Matters, with the definition on the piano and bass notable without sounding artificial or overwhelming.
The Music Matters edition has deeper, more resonant bass but an overall more polite presentation—it’s not as “in your face” as the Blue Note Classics edition. The soundstage is a little wider, giving Elvin’s drums more room to travel. In my listening room, that works if I’m sitting in the sweet spot and focused. If I’m moving around or slightly distracted, the drum sound on the Blue Note Classics pressing is more to my liking.
The Disk Union mono sounds somewhat different because, duh, mono. It’s more of an “interesting” listen than a revelatory one, which is frequently the case when there isn’t a dedicated mono mix. This would NOT be my comment if we were discussing Miles Smiles, for instance, which sounds radically different (and superior) in its mono guise. Juju isn’t about speed as much as intensity and velocity—mono doesn’t enhance those factors.
At ~$30, the Blue Note Classics pressing is a no-brainer. You’ll pay over 10X that for the Disk Union pressing and 6X (or more) for the Music Matters—I don’t hear the corresponding value proposition on my system. That said, there are those with systems that would reveal a clear difference, though the cost of those systems likely invokes a different set of guidelines when measuring value propositions.
Curious? Considering a trip to the record store or checking your Amazon.com gift card balance? Depending on your perspective, here’s either the good or bad news—Juju isn’t the only shiny new Wayne Shorter vinyl in the bins this summer. Coming this Friday, August 23, to coincide with Wayne’s 91st birthday is Celebration, Volume 1, the first in a planned series of live releases showcasing Wayne’s working quartet of the 2000s. The Wayne Shorter Quartet (WSQ) was the first full-time working group Wayne led in his career and featured pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade.
The inaugural title in this series was recorded at the Stockholm Jazz Festival on October 18, 2014. I’ve had the privilege of an early listen, and it’s extraordinary. That’s not hyperbole, though I’m prone to speak effusively regarding Wayne Shorter. It’s the opinion of an experienced listener of live recordings from the WSQ. I collect ROIO (Recordings of Indeterminate Origin—aka “bootlegs”) of the WSQ with the same zeal I collect Grateful Dead, Phish, Umphrey’s McGee, and Billy Strings recordings. My WSQ collection leans heavily towards its earlier years, with a few dozen recordings covering 2001 through 2008 and a more modest selection representing 2009–2018. So I was pretty excited when I found out that the first release in the series would address 2014—the only touring year utterly unrepresented in my library.
Celebration, Volume 1 includes WSQ favorites like Arthur Penn’s “Smilin’ Through” (a version of which first appeared on the 2005 WSQ live album Beyond the Sound Barrier) and Arthur B. Rubinstein’s “Edge of the World (End Title),” which to this day reminds me of my high school crush on Ally Sheedy in WarGames. There are also older Wayne-penned standards like “Orbits” and modern compositions like “Lotus.” Most of the record is given to a series of collaborative improv pieces built around the WSQ “zero gravity” mantra—an aspirational mindset to invoke the potential for spontaneous, collective composition free of unnecessary weight or friction. It was all about mindfulness and presence. In other words, without sounding pretentious:
Having spent much time absorbing Celebration, Volume 1, my first comment is that this recording is a sonic BEAST. I haven’t heard the vinyl yet, but the digital files sound superb. Dynamics, clarity, and presence bring Wayne’s quartet into the room, showcasing subtle triumphs and bold victories. It’s fascinating to compare a 2014 performance to a gig ten years earlier. This band was firing on all cylinders from their earliest days, so it’s not that their musicianship evolved so radically. You hear a band that got even more skilled at listening to one another, knowing each other’s talents, and knowing how to read the room.
If you’re looking for an apparent tonal center or where the “1” is, you’re not alone—so is the Wayne Shorter Quartet. That’s part of the fun. These aren’t the formally written compositions of his 1960s Blue Note run, though you’ll hear familiar melodies from those records appearing ephemerally before morphing into other ideas. The WSQ was all about using those melodies as waypoints to build spontaneous frameworks for collective improvisation. Nor was a given framework a permanent structure—on any given evening, the WSQ had a democratic approach that allowed any member to pour fresh musical concrete and build a new structure around the same melody.
While the track “Juju” doesn’t appear on Celebrations, Volume 1, it’s a terrific example that audibly illustrates my point if we dive into a few WSQ ROIOs.
Here’s “Juju” from the June 17th, 2001 gig at the Playboy Jazz Festival:
Which is markedly different from a rendition delivered the following month on July 8th at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival:
And here's another version, from July 9th, the following year at Zeltival in Karlsruhe:
In summary, I couldn’t be more pleased that Celebration, Volume 1 has a moniker indicating there will be additional volumes. I want to hear as many recordings from the Wayne Shorter Quartet as possible. No two performances are alike.
Also, a reminder that the recently re-issued Tone Poet edition of Wayne Shorter’s Odyssey of Iska is also freshly in the bins at fine stores everywhere. This often overlooked entry recorded at the end of Wayne’s initial Blue Note run sounds nothing like Juju or Celebrations. Odyssey of Iska finds Wayne looking ahead to his work with Weather Report, and remains criminally overlooked in his discography. Shameless self-promotion: I had the great honor of writing the liner notes for this Tone Poet edition, which I’m still geeking out about!
Finally, fellow Substacker
, who authored the definitive Wayne Shorter biography Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter, wrote a must-read post about Wayne’s Native Dancer last week—don’t miss it!