For those as ignorant as I am, I provide this, which relates well to music, IMO:

The Nature of Turbulence

"Sometimes", wrote Lucretius, "at uncertain times and places,
the eternal, universal fall of the atoms is disturbed by a very slight deviation - the clinamen.
The resulting vortex gives rise to the world, to all natural things.
The clinamen, this spontaneous, unpredictable deviation, has often been criticised as one of the main weaknesses of Lucretian physics, as being something introduced adhoc. In fact, the contrary is true - the clinamen attempts to explain events such as laminar flow ceasing to be stable and spontaneously turning into turbulent flow. Today hydrodynamic experts test the stability of fluid flow by introducing a perturbation that expresses the effect of molecular disorder added to the average flow. We are not so far from the clinamen of Lucretius!

Fo a long time turbulence was identified with disorder or noise. Today we know that this is not the case. Indeed, while turbulent motion appears as irregular or chaotic on the macroscopic scale, it is, on the contrary, highly organised in the microscopic scale. The multiple space and time scales involved in turbulence correspond to the coherent behaviour of millions and millions of molecules. Viewed in this way, the transition from laminar flow to turbulence is a process of self-organisation. Part of the energy of the system, which in laminar flow was in the thermal motion of the molecules, is being transferred to macroscopic organised motion.
(http://www.littlesputnik.net/trpearce/orderchaos.htm)

I think egolessness is tremendously damaging to music. Nobody wants to be Jackson Pollock anymore; everybody wants to be Robert Ryman, and it sucks. That's why I gave Yngwie Malmsteen's last album a positive review. The world needs more ego-crazed musicians. More wanking and drum solos, less of this dessicated, austere naptime stuff.

Yngwie is still out there?!? God bless him...

Phil, are you generally a fan of Shorter's music?

I like Super Nova more for the rest of the band than for him, and that's the only album I own by him. While I love the Miles Davis Quintet (a relatively recent conversion - I used to think their studio albums were staid when compared with the Plugged Nickel box, but have now revised that opinion), I think he pretty much lost it when Miles went electric. He wasn't doing anything super-special on In A Silent Way or Bitches Brew, and by the time he left the band, it was past time for him to go. The only Weather Report records I like are the first one and Mysterious Traveler. So generally, I think he's overrated, and has been for decades.

I’m not as familiar with Shorter’s work in Weather Report, but I think his switch to soprano as prefered improvisatory vehicle prior has something to do with the shift in philosophy (and vice versa). The straight horn’s aereated tone lent itself more to the ethereal ‘ego-less’ washes of sound he seemed to be aiming for. A paint brush with diffuse bristles & more watercolor stroke when compared to the ropy, probing lines of his 60s-era tenor. And I’m a huge fan of the latter approach, especially on albums like JUJU and ADAMS APPLE. Also dig his solo stuff better than his sojourn with Miles [great comic cover by the way, Joe].

This statement by Davis kind of puzzled me though: “Shorter was the most emulated saxophonist in jazz...” Huh? An unverifiable title to begin with, but I thought it went to Trane?

Derek -- I wondered about Davis' claim as well; I think "emulated" is the wrong verb, as I can't think of any saxophonists, really, who sound much like Wayne, or employ his unusual rhythmic devices. More often, folks like Chris Potter draw from a vaguely Shorter-esque vocabulary, I would say his influence has been more covert -- appropriately enough -- than that of Trane or Joe Henderson. Part of the reason may be that the Trane / Henderson harmonic ingenuity, as formidable as it is, is still easier to transcribe from examples and use as a basis for instruction. I think its worth considering another point Davis (obliquely) makes, which is that, like Monk, Shorter has had much more of an impact as a composer than as a "soloist".

That said, I do feel that Davis does overlook a few aspects of Shorter's evolution. If you listen to those old Jazz Messengers LPs, or even his first BN session, NIGHT DREAMER, you'll hear a tenor saxophonist very conversant with the funkier side of hard bop, at times honking and screaming ala Gator Tail Jackson. The effect is often startling, and reveals a sense of humor not often associated with Shorter's music. It also allows us to understand that Shorter, even at the start, was setting a precedent that he has held to throughout his career: while playing for another leader, he will make subtle adjustments to his own playing in order to best serve the music. He did this with Miles as well; in some ways, I would argue, he did it even more than he did when with Blakey. Just contrast his work on FREE FOR ALL (02/64), SPEAK NO EVIL (12/64) and E.S.P. (01/65).

In fact, 1965 is a crucial year for Shorter. By the time of records like THE SOOTHSAYER, ET CETERA and, to a lesser extent, THE ALL-SEEING EYE, he has become an almost punishingly intense improvisor. Some of the tempos on THE SOOTHSAYER are pretty dangerous ("Angola" comes to mind), and the mood of ET CETERA is rather brooding. (Maybe this is why both records sat in the vaults for so long.) I think it is more than Shorter just dealing with the presence of Coltrane in his own work. I do believe that he is wrestling with some problem of Self or Consciousness. Eventually, he passed out of this phase: the sun he was so close to on the 1965 records has become a cool, distant star by the time of SCHIZOPHRENIA. To me, this is the link with Coltrane: one more of philosophy than of style, though both men employed similar methods. To borrow from Paul Schraeder, maybe Coltrane was the Bresson of 60's jazz, and Shorter the Ozu...

Each man reached rather different yet unquestionably spiritual conclusions. Shorter cannot surrender the ideal of the melodic line, however much is winds and folds back on itself. Which is not to say that Shorter is all about linearity. Maybe more like he sees the potential, even in the smallest, most knotted-up segments, that, with a nudge here and a tug there, he can create the element of balance and containment. I want to say, as Davis does, that a sense of evaporation is key to Shorter's music, but maybe it is just that, unlike a catalyst, he allows something of himself to be converted or consumed in order to keep the organism -- the ensemble, the music -- alive. I would not call this egolessness. Maybe it is just organicism, pure and simple. Though I can still understand Kart's criticism of ODYSSEY OF ISKA -- a record I rather admire, BTW, not just for its delicacy, but also because it is one of the few of Shorter's later records to feature any tenor playing whatsoever.

I would also agree that Shorter eventually did find a more personal voice on soprano sax. He was never a "mere doubler". I love SUPER NOVA, actually, but I do not think it fully represents what he became as a soprano saxophonist. There are times on that record where he sounds exhilarated in the manner of someone who has discovered some magical amulet, that, once draped around one's neck, renders one lighter than air. Performances like the title track "Capricorn" and "More Than Human" are highly charged, even passionate. "Water Babies" to me is most spectacular of all these pieces, and even finds Shorter returning to the blues to devastating effect. But I suppose it was not meant to last, not with the forces of equilibrium so hard at work in his universe. The ultimate paradox to me is how unprepossessing Shorter's instrumental voice has become, even as his music has become even more complex and even symphonic. Is there an allegory here? Maybe so, but something tells me its symbols aren't really to be discovered in the man's psychology, but in the expectations our cultural history has foisted upon us. Davis hints at as much; Anthony Braxton has complained about this "syndrome".

Excellent points, Joe. The veracity of Shorter’s composerly impact makes more sense to me than does that of his playing. Though I did find a light bulb going on recently when you compared Evan Parker’s tenor playing to that of Shorter in your review of SUSPENSIONS AND ANIMATIONS. It’s interesting to track at how both men have dealt with Coltrane in their respective evolutions. Shorter’s middle albums for Blue Note- JUJU in particular, w/ the presence of the Tyner, Workman, Jones rhythm section- have strong ties to Coltrane in sound & concept. On a peripheral note it’s also telling to hear the music Tyner and Jones made with other leaders during this period & the amount of ‘Trane’ they brought to the proceedings (ie. Joe Henderson’s INNER URGE, Grant Green’s MATADOR...)

Glad you mentioned Willis “Gator Tail” Jackson. He’s a guy I’ve been delving into seriously the past year or so, mostly via what’s been a regular stream of reissues from Prestige. Highly underrated as a jazz player imo, in much the same manner King Curtis was. His sides with Pat Martino and Jack McDuff showcase someone with powers far beyond the clichéd R&B barwalker (a persona he definitely cultivated & found lucrative in his youth). Granted much of the material he was working with wasn’t very advanced & could be formulaic, but much of his work is easily on par with that of his immediate peers (Red Holloway, Harold Vick, Houston Person, etc.)

Well, the orignial "Gator Tail (Pts. 1 and 2)" has to heard to be believed. I'm pretty sure it was on Mercury. One of several missing, discarded, overlooked, etc. links between bebop and Albert Ayler.

That Jackson band you mentioned with Pat Azzara / Martino (though Bill Jennings is no slouch either) is up there with the McDuff groups with Red Holloway, George Benson and Joe Dukes in terms of soul jazz supremacy.

Almost without exception I like everything Shorter did between the end of the 50s and the second Weather Report album, as a composer as much as a saxophonist.
I know fuck all about Yngwie Whathisname so I won't pass judgement.
Re: Miles' remark - he said some dumb things about Dolphy too.

All I can add about Shorter is that when I saw him with Weather Report, he'd put the horn to his mouth occasionally, but never play more than a note or two. Mostly didn't play at all. I guess that's pretty egoless.

"All I can add about Shorter is that when I saw him with Weather Report, he'd put the horn to his mouth occasionally, but never play more than a note or two. Mostly didn't play at all. I guess that's pretty egoless."

He was Sugimoto before Sugimoto was cool...

Actaully, the more I think about it, the more Cage's position as some sort of Zen master to the international music community strikes me as odd, as well as too-often glossed over. I mean, if complaints about The Rolling Stones selling the blues back to teenage surbanities in America are legitimate -- a big if depending upon your political allegiances -- then what about Cage selling koans back to the increasingly "Westernized" Japanese? Is it even fair to describe this dynamic in these terms?