WAYNE SHORTER — The Soothsayer (review)

WAYNE SHORTER — The Soothsayer album cover Album · 1979 · Hard Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Sean Trane
Definitely Wayne’s more intriguing string pre-WR albums, outside Nova and Iska IMHO, and no doubt due to the amazing line-up featured, which includes the unusual presence McCoy Tyner (generally not associated with the Miles-Shorter crowd), and the slightly less-surprising Hubbard. Completing the line-up are the ultra-young Tony Williams, the ever-unavoidable Carter and the less-famous Spaulding (a usual Horace & Hubbard suspect) doubling Wayne sax on different ranges. Well despite my original intrigue, the album ultimately proves to be a bit disappointing, because McCoy is not being given enough space on Shorter’s compositions to allow him to make a distinct difference on countless other albums, even if one can hear is awesome southpaw pounding the keys. If the overall soundscapes of Soothsayer are fairly standard, one can’t really classify as an outright bop thing. In some ways, Soothsayer is very much in the line of Juju and Night Dreamer, with the notable exception of the title track, which bears a definite Trayner influence.

All of the other tracks are generally post-bop enough to sound like an early 60’s jazz release, but by no means is the present album any superior than the huge majority of jazz releases of those years.

Wayne (with McCoy) would be one of the few musicians that would cross the Miles-Trane gap (well Shorter did play also with Elvin, before he would with McCoy) and he would return the favour by playing on a few Tyner albums around the turn of the decade. Good stuff but nothing transcendental, except for the modal title track.

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