Wayne Shorter Quartet
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Holland Performing Arts Center
Omaha, Nebraska

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01 - crowd
02 - Instrumental 1
03 - Instrumental 2
04 - Instrumental 3
05 - Instrumental 4
06 - Instrumental 5


Lineup:
-Wayne Shorter - saxophones
-Danilo Perez - piano
-John Patitucci - bass
-Brian Blade - drums

Review:
Wayne Shorter Quartet skips tunes, paints in abstract tones
POSTED: THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2014 12:00 AM
By Todd von Kampen / World-Herald correspondent

Perhaps the best way to offer perspective on the Wayne Shorter Quartet�s Omaha concert Wednesday night is
to note the saxophonist playing outside the Holland Performing Arts Center as opposed to the jazz legend
playing the sax inside.

The outdoor sax man, one of the �buskers� who lend charm to the Old Market, was playing solo versions of
recognizable standards � �My Funny Valentine� before the show, �Don�t Get Around Much Anymore� after it.
He drew from the earlier, tuneful, easily accessible generations of jazz. The concert inside the Holland did not.
For 75 minutes, concertgoers were invited into an extended musical conversation between Shorter, 80, and the
rest of his quartet: pianist Danilo Perez, string bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. There were,
after a fashion, four songs prior to a brief encore. None had identifiable melodies or chord progressions, and
most lacked an established key or a regular beat.

How many people in the mostly full Peter Kiewit Concert Hall had come hoping to hear at least one or two of
the jazz or fusion classics from Shorter�s nearly 60-year career � say, �E.S.P.� (which he wrote while he was
part of Miles Davis� second quintet), �Birdland� (the signature �chart� by Weather Report, which he co-founded)
or any of the tunes he wrote while with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers?

It�s hard to say. But while many appreciative concertgoers stood, cheered and whistled in search of an encore,
a significant number � more than usual for a Holland concert � headed for the exits.
There will be other Omaha Performing Arts jazz concerts in the Holland in which what musicians call
�tonal harmony� will return to center stage. Clearly that wasn�t the concert that Shorter and his quartet
planned to present Wednesday night. They chose a more abstract, experimental style of jazz that first came
into vogue in the 1960s but never did and likely never will gain mainstream popularity.

So did Shorter and his friends earn the standing ovation at the end � not to mention the extended cheers and
applause they received when they first took the stage? Most definitely. For whatever one may think of the type
of jazz they served up Wednesday night, their virtuosity in presenting it was breathtaking indeed.
Shorter chose for much of the evening to add aural spice with his soprano and tenor saxes while letting his
mates shine on their instruments. The quartet, in fact, often seemed more like two duos: Perez and Shorter
talking on one side via sax and piano, Patitucci and Blade on the other conversing � and sometimes visibly
laughing � with bass and drum set.

It fell to Perez to paint the basic aural picture. He would begin with shimmering, reflective passages, then
elaborate upon two or three basic chords which gave the piece some kind of structure even if they kept
wandering away.

At other times, Perez joined Blade and Patitucci in intense musical dialogues in which all spoke with all the
power and dexterity they could command. Explosions and thunderclaps issued from Blade�s drum set. Patitucci,
meanwhile, rumbled energetically below him as he rapidly plucked the bass with one hand while the fingers of
his other hand traveled up, down and even off the instrument�s neck onto its main body.

Then, when he felt the time was right, Shorter tweeted and wailed over the top of the bass-drum duo or pulled
the entire quartet together with improvisations testifying that the decades have not yet robbed him of unity
between his brain and his body.

No, you probably wouldn�t dance to it. You certainly wouldn�t sing along with it. But Shorter�s quartet would
fit well in the background of a laid-back private party. If that�s your style as a jazz fan � or if you simply
appreciate virtuosity � then the foursome earned its ovation Wednesday night.

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