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TORONTO GLOBE and MAIL
Review of Wayne Shorter Quartet collaboration
July 2, 2007
By J.D. Considine
NOTHING TYPICAL IN THESE DAZZLING SHOWS
The Wind quintet may not [be] a common sight on the classical music concert scene, but it's utterly unheard of in jazz. Wayne Shorter wants to change that, however, and used this year's Festival International de Jazz de Montreal to introduce jazz to the glory of the wind quintet. For his Friday concert at the Teatre Maisonneuve, he augmented his usual group – pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade – with the New York based quintet Imani Winds.
That Imani Winds was not a typical chamber group was obvious from their first number, an arrangement of Mongo Santamaria's Afro Blue, which opened with Jeff Scott half-valving a blues riff on his French horn. But it wasn't until the quintet retook the stage, after two tunes by Shorter's quartet, including a witty, colouristic rendition of Zero Gravity, that things really got under way.
Although there were moments when Shorter stood to solo, big band-style, much of the improvisation was folded into the writing, echoing the interactive approach of Shorter's quartet. But the best part of the collaboration was the way Shorter exploited both colouration of the Imani Winds and the rhythmic potential of his own quartet to ensure the music built to an exhilarating climax. Here's hoping these pieces are recorded soon.
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