You are browsing the archives of Wayne Shorter.

Before I start this post, I wanted to say that I realized last night that I’d already put up a performance of “Donna Lee” this week. Sorry about that. Maybe I should change the name of the blog to “Stop and Hear Donna Lee”.
Art Blakey was born in 1919 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Raised by [...]

Herbie Hancock was born in Chicago in 1940. He started playing classical piano at seven. He was considered a child prodigy and played a piece with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. He was always very interested in jazz and used to study jazz recordings. He started playing jazz in high school. Hancock was [...]

Miles Davis was born on May 26, 1926. He grew up in a well-to-do family in East St. Louis. His father was a dentist. The family lived on a ranch and they had horses. (How lucky is that! All I ever wanted as a little girl was a pony.)
He started playing trumpet when he [...]

Wayne Shorter was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 25, 1933. He was an artistic child who loved to draw. He attended the Newark Arts High School and started playing the saxophone in his teens.
His interest in film and the visual arts has always influenced his music. Shorter has said that he is [...]

Here’s a live performance of “Black Market” from 1978. I hear this all the time in my house because my husband likes to practice to it.