There is an exquisite interview with Wayne Shorter somewhere on the tubes of You. He tells the story of meeting Lester Young in Toronto at the Towne Tavern. A lot of detail and magic and so was Wayne Shorter’s tone. I know his cred for the Miles Davis records is often the first honour cited, but for me it’s the 70s Weather Report output, forever in my bloodstream. I don’t know the ins and outs of playing saxophone but even though I’ve heard awesome great players over many years, only two I can think of, Ron Allen and Ernie Tollar, that made a sound reminding me of Mr. Gone [that’s what they called him]. I have no idea what that’s all about but it stops me in my tracks. It doesn’t seem easily reproduced. A Remark You Made by Zawinul is a favourite for me. Now they are all Mister Gones: Pastorius, Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. He was also friends with Joni Mitchell and they made that unusual double album – Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter. Probably, most think it is a reference to a romantic Don Juan, but in an interview I read it’s her love of the Carlos Castaneda’s books. The encounters between Don Juan the shaman and Carlos the anthropologist. Shame, none of the young people seem to any longer need to consume peyote and consciousness adventures, recorded so diligently in Journey to Ixtlan. I liked them as a duo on A Bird That Whistles though I never quite bought her as Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I also loved Wayne Shorter in the middle of Aja with Steve Gadd. What a drug.
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