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When jazz legend Wayne Shorter was growing up in Newark, N.J., in the 1940s, he would sometimes skip school to hang out at the Adams Theatre.

Sitting in the downtown theater, he got to hear such famous jazz artists as Stan Kenton, Illinois Jacquet, Count Basie, and Jimmy Lunceford.

But that wasn’t his main reason for missing school.

"I was not into music at all! I just went to see The Last Days of Pompeii and One Million B.C. with Victor Mature," Shorter recalled with a laugh.

The big-band jazz acts were featured between films and on the weekends, said the musician, who is still a movie buff.

It wasn’t until jazz innovators such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker began creating the complex, uptempo genre known as bebop that Shorter really began to take note.

And it wasn’t long before Shorter became hooked on this radical, revolutionary brand of jazz, he said in a recent interview.

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

The festival takes place on several stages, including Absopure Waterfront Stage, Chase Main Stage, Carhartt Amphitheatre, and Mack Avenue Records Pyramid Stage.

Friday
7 p.m.: Hank Jones
8:45 p.m.: Corea, Clark & White

Saturday
4:45 p.m.: Dave Brubeck Quartet
7:45 p.m.: The Contours featuring Sylvester Potts
9:15 p.m.: Christian McBride & Inside Straight

Sunday
6 p.m.: Geri Allen Quartet
7:15 p.m.: Wayne Shorter Quartet
9 p.m.: Pete Escovedo Latin Jazz Orchestra

Monday
5:15 p.m.: John Pizzarelli with guest Bucky Pizzarelli
6:30 p.m.: Stefon Harris & Blackout

"I saw Dizzy Gillespie on the weekends and I began paying more attention when the contemporary music came into play," he said from his home in Los Angeles.

Shorter will lead his quartet in concert Sept. 6 at the Detroit Jazz Fest, the largest free jazz festival in North America.

The lineup for this year’s festival, which stretches from Friday through Sept. 7, will include the Dave Brubeck Quartet, the Geri Allen Quartet, the Heath Brothers, Larry Coryell Trio, John Pizzarelli, Booker T., Irma Thomas, and Chick Corea with Stanley Clarke on bass and Lenny White on drums.

For Shorter, the 76-year-old saxophonist and composer whose resume includes nine Grammy Awards, historic recordings with Miles Davis, and co-founding the visionary jazz-fusion group Weather Report, music was a way to focus his energy and stay out of trouble.

After getting caught forging notes from his parents and nonexistent doctors, he recalled with painful clarity a long, dreaded walk to the principal’s office.

His high school in Newark was one of the first in the nation to have an intercom, he said, and when the principal call him into his office, the summons was blared through every room and hallway in the building.

Shorter told school administrators that he had been skipping class to sneak in the back door of the Adams Theatre to see Charlie "Bird" Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young, Thelonious Monk, and other jazz artists perform.

The vice principal picked up the phone and called the school’s music director.

Shorter was 16 when his teachers and parents decided to tap into his love of contemporary jazz and get him started taking music lessons.

His first instrument was the clarinet, on which he practiced six hours a day.

"Every Saturday, I would go down there for lessons with my Rubank Elementary Method clarinet book," he said.

"The guys who were actually playing in Newark, who were carrying the message, would say, ‘Are you hip? Are you hip to Charles Christopher Parker? Are you in the know?’" Shorter said.

They didn’t take Shorter seriously, however. He was, after all, a quiet 16-year-old kid whose was learning from an elementary-level clarinet book.

"They said, ‘He’s too young. He can’t be in the know.’ I was too young to go into the bars and play. I wasn’t even really playing. I was just doing the keys of C and F and doing some Ukrainian folk songs."

He practiced diligently, however, listening to and playing along with recordings of classical and jazz music.

Shorter also would go outside with other young musicians and compete to be the best at using their instruments to mimic sounds heard around them.

"Like a door closing. We’d see who could go the furthest. Or we’d make a sound and say, ‘What is this?’ Tonal stuff, like crushing paper and cellophane, locomotives, boat whistles, all those kinds of stuff. Or talking in other people’s voices. We did certain movie actors, like John Wayne."

Shorter’s skills on the clarinet improved rapidly, but it would be misleading to say music came easy to him, he said.

It was more a matter of being motivated by the challenges, the discoveries, and the rewards.

"It was like an adventure," he said.

That craving for adventure has been a constant in Shorter’s unflagging pursuit of music, art, and life itself.

After high school, Shorter enrolled at New York University in 1952 to continue his music studies and added the tenor saxophone to his resume.

The reason, he said, was that a teacher told him that by doubling, or playing two instruments, he’d have more opportunities for good-paying union jobs.

Shorter graduated with a degree in music education in 1956 and began playing at many of the jazz hotspots in Manhattan. He earned the nickname "The Newark Flash" for his lightning quick touch on tenor sax, and later was also known as "Mr. Gone."

Just as his career was starting to take off, Shorter was drafted into the Army.

He was discharged in 1958 and played briefly with jazz pianist Horace Silver and then joined the band of trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, where he met his future Weather Report partner, pianist Josef Zawinul.

It was during this era that Shorter also became friends with John Coltrane, a saxophonist revered for his fierce technique, profound vision, and integrated spirituality. Seven years younger than Trane, Shorter and his mentor would spend hours talking music theory and practice.

In 1959, Shorter heard that famed band leader Art Blakey was looking for a tenor saxophonist and joined his group, the Jazz Messengers.

During his five years with Blakey, Shorter honed his composing skills, became the band’s musical director, and made his debut as a solo artist, recording "Introducing Wayne Shorter," "Second Genesis," and "Wayning Moments" for Vee-Jay Recoreds.

In 1960, Coltane left Miles Davis’ group and recommended Shorter to be his successor. Shorter declined, however, feeling an obligation to stay with Blakey.

Four years later, Davis came calling again and this time Shorter agreed, joining the trumpet star to form one of jazz’s most storied quintets with Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums.

That lineup produced three landmark jazz fusion albums: Miles Smiles, In a Silent Way, and Bitches Brew.

Shorter also expanded his composing skills, contributing such now-classic songs to Davis’ group as "Nefertiti," "Footprints," and "Pinocchio."

He also began playing the soprano saxophone toward the end of his tenure with Davis, while also continuing his career as a solo artist.

In 1970, Shorter and Zawinul teamed up with bassist Miroslav Vitous to create Weather Report, a band that blazed a trail for a new era in jazz-rock fusion. The large ensemble was adept at high-energy, aggressive tunes as well as atmospheric ballads played with an array of electronic and acoustic instruments.

One of the memorable Weather Report lineups arrived in the mid-1970s when the band hired bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius.

"We were playing somewhere in Florida and this guy was running behind our bus," Shorter recalled. "He said, ‘I heard you were looking for me! I’m Jaco Pastorius, the baddest bass player in the world!’"

Shorter stayed with Weather Report until the group disbanded in 1985, making it the longest time he’d ever been with one band.

He then toured with guitarist Carlos Santana and continued his collaborations with Hancock, including the Grammy-winning song, "Aung San Suu Kyi," from their 1997 disc "1+1."

Shorter’s current quartet, which will play in Detroit on Sept. 6, was formed in 2000 with Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass, and Brian Blade on drums.

"The masses, the majority, will quickly embrace what is easy to access, what is in the safe comfort zones. But taking chances, that’s my mission.

How do you deal with the unexpected? That’s why this band doesn’t rehearse," Shorter said.

Rehearsals can stifle creativity and the sense of adventure, he said.

"How do you rehearse the unexpected? To do the unexpected, we have to reach further than our grasp."

When he was with Weather Report, the band rehearsed the written musical charts, he said, but that only served as the jumping-of point.

"We rehearsed what was written to a point where we would play from memory.

But from that idea, that premise, we would then try to elucidate on that and get past ‘once upon a time.’"

For Shorter, a convert to Buddhism, playing music to the best of his ability parallels his efforts to be the best person he can be.

"There is always something new when we as human beings become more human, and what that is, it’s an adventurous mystery."

Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com or
419-724-6154.

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