Saxophonist-composer Wayne Shorter recorded Etcetera, one among his most ignored and underrated Blue Word albums, on Monday, June 14, 1965. Although recorded throughout a fertile interval for each the saxophonist and the file label launched in 1939 by producer Alfred Lion, the five-song album didn’t floor for an additional 15 years, when, in 1980, producer Michael Cuscuna liberated it from the vaults to share it with the world. However despite the fact that Etcetera has been out there for 4 many years, it has by no means acquired the publicity or consideration it deserves.
Take heed to Wayne Shorter’s Etcetera on Apple Music and Spotify.
The context
So why doesn’t Etcetera command the identical reverence as different Wayne Shorter albums of the mid-60s, comparable to Communicate No Evil and The All Seeing Eye? And why did it take so lengthy to see the sunshine of day? Such was Shorter’s creativity within the 18-month interval between April 1964 and October 1965 – when he recorded six albums in fast succession – it’s doable that Blue Word couldn’t sustain with him. Quite than glut the market, maybe Etcetera – which was a extra low-key affair than a few of Shorter’s different LPs from the interval – was left on the shelf after which ignored in favor of later classes.
When he recorded Etcetera, New Jersey-born Shorter was 32 and some months into his tenure with the well-known Miles Davis Quintet, a pathfinding band for whom he would finally go on to turn out to be the primary composer. With Miles, Shorter had recorded the album ESP (composing its title observe) in January 1965, after which in March of that yr, he recorded a sextet album for Blue Word referred to as The Soothsayer (which, like Etcetera, was shelved till a later date, surfacing in 1979).
For the Etcetera session, Shorter recruited fellow Miles Davis band member, pianist Herbie Hancock, together with bassist Cecil McBee (with whom the saxophonist had labored the earlier yr on trombonist Grachan Moncur’s Blue Word album Some Different Stuff) and drummer Joe Chambers, who would proceed to work with Shorter on his subsequent three albums (The All Seeing Eye, Adam’s Apple, and Schizophrenia).
The music
Stylistically, Etcetera’s opening title observe inhabits the extra summary, post-bop panorama that Shorter was exploring with the Miles Davis Quintet throughout the identical timeframe. It’s distinguished by a craving clarion call-like theme constructed from a set of repeated saxophone motifs. Following Shorter’s pithy solo, Hancock enters with one thing extra discursive, avoiding blues and bop clichés in favor of melodic and harmonic surprises. Joe Chambers additionally has a spell within the highlight close to the top, mixing kinetic energy with rhythmic subtlety.
In sharp distinction, the ear-caressing “Penelope” – one among Shorter’s most interesting ballads – is calming and pensive. Its slowly uncoiling, serpentine melody is each stunning and bewitching, stylistically recalling the sooner “Speak No Evil” and anticipating the later “Nefertiti,” recorded with Miles.
Exhibiting comparable musical DNA is “Toy Tune,” a bittersweet, barely subdued swinger pushed by McBee’s strolling bass and Chambers’ crisp drumming. After stating the primary theme, Shorter takes an extended solo however by no means deviates too removed from the contours of his unique melody. Herbie Hancock then steps out with a scintillating improvised passage that sparkles with melodic readability and playful ingenuity.
Strummed chords from Cecil McBee’s bass open the album’s solely cowl, a retooling of famous composer/arranger Gil Evans’ tune “Barracudas” in 6/8 time (the composer had recorded it in 1964 as a big ensemble piece referred to as “Time Of The Barracudas,” which appeared on his Verve album, The Individualism Of Gil Evans, and which additionally featured Wayne Shorter). Shorter’s model reimagines the tune in a quartet setting and options beautiful solos from each himself and Herbie Hancock, whereas McBee and Chambers drive the tune ahead with a maelstrom of polyrhythms.
Etcetera closes with its longest reduce, the modal-flavored “Indian Song,” which is an unique Shorter quantity delivered through a mesmeric loping groove in 5/4 time. Cecil McBee’s repeated ostinato bass motif establishes the temper and tempo earlier than Chambers and Hancock enter, adopted by Shorter, who enunciates a snaking Jap-tinged melody 3 times earlier than breaking off for an exploratory solo that sporadically retains returning to the primary theme. The rhythm beneath him ebbs and flows, mirroring the rise and fall of depth in Shorter’s improvisations. Hancock takes the second solo, his foraging piano underpinned by glorious drum work from Chambers, whereas McBee retains plucking the identical bassline till, at across the nine-minute mark, he solos, roaming extra freely earlier than resuming the primary groove that prompts a recap of the primary theme.
The Tone Poet reissue of Wayne Shorter’s And so forthetera will be purchased right here.
