Wayne Shorter - Footprints Live! (2002)

This was Wayne Shorter's return to an acoustic jazz quartet.The saxophonist digs deep into his classic repertoire, unearthing compositions like Masqualero, Footprints and Juju from his great Blue Note discs of the 1960s and the slightly later Atlantis.
For the first time since the late 60s, since before In a Silent Way, before Weather Report - Shorter seemed interested in acoustic jazz again. The personnel was first rate; Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass and Brian Blade on drums are young but very experienced, each a leader in his own right.

This is Shorter's first live album, and it captures the intense creativity of a band on tour, that's played-in and enjoying each others company. This is a real quartet album, with each of the four playing at his best, and vital to its success.The music Shorter is making is both a throwback to the sixties years with Miles and that 2nd great quintet and also a futuristic meditation on musical abstractions. The way Wayne plays you never know what he is playing until you catch a glimpse of a familiar theme and then with the merry mischievousness of a two year old, as soon as you’ve got it, Shorter has moved on to something else.


1 Sanctuary
2 Masquelero
3 Valse triste (Jean Sibelius - arr. Wayne Shorter)
4 Go
5 Aung San Suu Kyi
6 Footprints
7 Atlantis
8 Juju