VIDEO: Happy Birthday Wayne Shorter

WAYNE SHORTER

• August 25, 1933 Wayne Shorter, hall of fame jazz saxophonist and composer, was born in Newark, New Jersey. Shorter took up the saxophone as a teenager and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in music education in 1956 from New York University. After spending two years in the United States Army, in 1959 Shorter joined Art Blakey’s group where he played for five years and eventually became the group’s musical director. From 1964 to 1970, he played with Miles Davis, composing “ESP,” “Footprints,” “Nefertiti,” and many other recordings. In 1971, Shorter co-founded the group Weather Report which recorded until 1985. After leaving Weather Report, Shorter continued to record and lead groups. Shorter has won nine Grammy Awards, including three for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group for “A Tribute to Miles” (1994), “Alegria” (2003), and “Beyond the Sound Barrier” (2005). In 1998, Shorter was designated a NEA Jazz Master, the highest honor the nation bestows on a jazz artist, by the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2003 he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. Shorter’s biography, “Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter,” was published in 2005. His most recent album, “Without a Net,” was released in 2013.

>via: http://thewright.org/explore/blog/entry/today-in-black-history-8252013