Night dreamer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Night Deamer
Wayne Shorter's studio album

Publication
(s)

1964

Label (s) Blue Note Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

6/7

running time

45:57 (CD)

occupation

production

Alfred Lion

Studio (s)

Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey

chronology
Wayning Moments
(1962) 		Night Deamer JuJu
(1964)
Template: Info box music album / maintenance / parameter error

Night Dreamer is a jazz album by Wayne Shorter . It was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey on April 29, 1964 and released on Blue Note Records .

The album

After Wayne Shorter recorded three albums under his own name during his time at Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers for the small Jee Vay label, on which he worked with trumpeters Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard , the year 1964 was a turning point in his career so far . In April 1964 he was given the opportunity to head a quintet for Blue Note to record the LP Night Dreamer with Morgan as additional winds and McCoy Tyner , Reggie Workman and Elvin Jones as an accompanying group, the selection of which expresses his closeness to John Coltrane ; they were Coltrane's rhythm section when recording the album Africa / Brass in 1961 . The album JuJu followed in August . In September Shorter became a member of the legendary second Miles Davis Quintet, where he replaced George Coleman , and performed with him on September 15 at the Berlin Jazz Days . Finally, in December, Shorter's masterpiece Speak No Evil with Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock , Ron Carter and again Elvin Jones was created.

The jazz critic Nat Hentoff wrote in the liner notes for the LP Night Dreamer that it was Shorter's first real album as the leader of his own formation, his most important session to date, and it also marked Shorter's growing importance as a composer of jazz tracks; the album contains only original titles. It was also a transitional album from the straight-forward songs of the Vee Jay phase, which were played more in the traditional hard bop style, to more demanding compositions. When asked what his pieces were about, Shorter said he was concerned with the right to " judgment" ; He does not understand the title “Armageddon” (conventionally) as the struggle between “good” and “bad”, but as the beginning of a period of total enlightenment, in which we recognize what we are and why we are here (on earth) Hentoff quotes him.

Shorter's proclamation of enlightenment (enlightenment) begins with the title track "Night Dreamer", which he is a mostly flowing character. The following "Oriental Folk Song" was originally written as the subject of a TV commercial; Shorter later adapted it to a jazz version.

The ballad "Virgo", which is strongly inspired by Coltrane, refers to the zodiac sign Virgo, under which Shorter was born on August 25, 1933. In “Virgo” the ballad art of the composer Shorter is already hinted at, which a few years later culminated in titles like “Fall” (in Nefertiti ) or “Water Babies” in 1967 in the Miles Davis Band.

"Black Nile" got its title from books by the author Alan Moorehead , The White Nile and The Blue Nile , understood as Shorter's homage to Egyptian culture as one of the oldest African civilizations.

The following “Charcoal Blues” is Shorter's reference to the blues songs of his childhood.

The last track "Armageddon" ( Armageddon ) occupies a central place for the saxophonist; he emphasizes the seriousness of the composition, which initially leads astray with its quickly played introduction and which is like camouflage for what comes after, wrote Hentoff in 1964.

Rating of the album

Wayne Shorter's six-year era on the Blue Note label began with Night Dreamer ; eleven music productions were made during this time. Bob Blumenthal wrote in his remarks on the 2004 re-release that Shorter anticipated much of what was felt in society in the second half of the 1960s with the album and his spiritual intentions. Joe Zawinul said of his colleague that he was the first person I met who was open to new thinking. The All Music Guide gives the album the second highest rating (4.5 out of 5 points). Night Dreamer is now one of the essential albums of Shorter's early creative phase, Richard Cook and Brian Morton noted that the album was Shorter's most individual work in the group of Blue Note LPs are; Night Dreamer is also the work in which he is closest to Coltrane; like an object study, “Virgo” shows how much Coltrane influenced younger saxophonists. Titles like “Charcoal Blues” or “Armageddon” are easily identifiable with his (later) work; and the exotic touch of an “Oriental Folk Song” is repeated in Shorter's later recordings. Cook and Morton give the album the second highest rating. In the Jazz - Rough Guide , Ian Carr emphasized the poetic moment in Shorter's compositions compared to the previous recordings by Vee Jay and Blakey. and calls it a great pre-miles album .

The titles

Wayne Shorter

Blue Note LP: (BST 844173), CD: (82 84173) (1987), CD (RVG series): (7243 8 75334 24)

  1. Night Dreamer - 7:15
  2. Oriental Folk Song - 6:51
  3. Virgo - 7:07
  4. Black Nile - 6:28
  5. Charcoal Blues - 6:54
  6. Armageddon - 6:23
  7. Virgo (alternate take) * - 7:03 * Bonus track

All the tracks were composed by Shorter. The cover photography came from Francis Wolff . In 2005 the album was reissued as part of the Rudy Van Gelder-RVG Edition series.

literature

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Sam Rivers , who played with Miles immediately before, was only in Miles Davis' band when recording in Tokyo.
  2. ↑ cit. after Blumenthal, 2004
  3. ↑ link
  4. ↑ cf. Cook / Morton, pp. 1339 f.
  5. ↑ Blumenthal explains that Shorter was hardly able to establish himself as a composer with Blakey.
  6. ↑ cf. Carr, p. 586.