Lacquer cutting by SST Bruggemann GmbH, pressing at Pallas in Germany

 

The ‘Play 33 1/3 LP Series' is a first LP issue project of the masterpiece albums which have never been released on vinyl LP. The albums are released by Universal Music Korea and the heavyweight vinyl LP is pressed in Germany. Khiov designs the project, reforms the original artworks for the LP size and produces the sleeves precisely by handmade. You will have a chance to experience great analogue sounds and to enjoy splendid artworks through the series.

 

After the release of the critically acclaimed Footprints Live!, this album is saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter's first studio recording as a leader since the Grammy-winning 1994 release, High Life. Shorter is joined by pianists Danilo Perez and Brad Mehldau, bassist John Patitucci, drummers Terri Lyne Carrington and Brian Blade, and percussionist Alex Acuna.

 

"Backed by a superb woodwind and brass ensemble, this project offers a comprehensive and sophisticated presentation of Shorter's music, from the Andalusian airs on 'Vendiendo Alegria' by Antonio Molina to a reincarnation of 'Capricorn II' from his mid-'60s Miles Davis days. Shorter's soprano and tenor playing is his most expressive in years, and producer Robert Sadin (who worked on Herbie Hancock's Gershwin's World and Kathleen Battle's So Many Stars) has provided Shorter with his most poignant sonic setting on record." 

 

...As on Footprints Live, Shorter revisits some old tunes from his relative youth, but not nearly in the same way. In "Orbits," which was given a racetrack post-bop run by the Miles Davis Quintet, Shorter slows it way, way down, virtually deconstructing the tune, backed by a quizzical chart for winds and brass...With a wild soprano wail, Shorter leads off the album with his new, absorbing boogaloo "Sacajawea," one that soon morphs into searching, nearly free jazz, with a magisterial solo from the composer. At last, someone in jazz chose to deal with both tunes from Leroy Anderson's Spanish-flavored light classical masterpiece "Serenata" rather than just the lush second subject -- and Shorter decorates them with a complex featherweight orchestration. Though Acuna's bongos pop away in the foreground, Shorter does maintain the melancholy feeling of the familiar aria from Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5" ... As he approached his 70th birthday, this disc seemed to confirm a long-awaited creative Indian summer for Wayne Shorter." - Richard s. Ginell

 

Musicians:
Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Danilo Perez, piano (A1, B1, C2, D1, D2)
Brad Mehldau, piano (A2, B3, C3)
John Patitucci, bass
Brian Blade, drums (A1, A2, C1, C2, C3, D2)
Terri Lyne Carrington, drums (B1, B3, D1)
Alex Acuna, percussion (B1, B2, B3, D1)
Lew Soloff, trumpet
Chris Gekker, trumpet
Jeremy Pelt, trumpet
Jim Pugh, trombone
Steve Davis, trombone
Bruce Eidem, trombone
Papo Vasquez, trombone
Michael Boschen, trombone
Chris Potter, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone
Charles Curtis, solo cello
Paul Dunkel, flute
Steven Taylor, oboe
Allen Blustine, clarinet, bass clarinet
Frank Morelli, bassoon
John Clark, horn
Stewart Rose, horn
Marcus Rojas, tuba

 

Side 1

1. Sacajawea

2. Serenata

 

Side 2

1. Vendiendo Alegría

2. Bachianas Brasileiras No.5

3. Angola

 

Side 3

1. Interlude

2. She Moves Through The Fair

3. Orbits

 

Side 4

1. 12th Century Carol

2. Capricorn