Tenor-saxophonist Wayne Shorter's Blue Note debut found him well prepared to enter the big time. With an impressive quintet that includes trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Elvin Jones, Shorter performed a well-rounded program consisting of five of his originals (this CD reissue adds an alternate take of "Virgo") plus an adaptation of an "Oriental Folk Song." Whether it be the brooding title cut, the Coltranish ballad "Virgo" or the jams on "Black Nile" and "Charcoal Blues," this is a memorable set of high-quality and still fresh music.
When he wrote this, Wayne Shorter was thinking of Elvin Jones drum style and was counting on Elvin's ability to play a heavy groove that paradoxically floats in waltz time, to evoke dream time. And he gave pianist McCoy Tyner a sequence of four chords that repeats obsessively until it suspends and floats for a few breaths before the obsession returns, a kind of dream logic.That, with Reggie Wo...