Customer Reviews

Super Nova

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There probably wasn't much more to be done in free jazz after this disc came out in the late '60s. The fact that Shorter and his band wrung so much expressiveness and even bits of tunefulness out of this chaotic, abrasive genre at that late date is a tribute to their talent. The band included guitarist Sonny Sharrock and future Weather Report bandmates bassist Miroslav Vitous and percussionist Airto Moreira. John McLaughlin also contributes his considerable presence on one track. This is a good disc for someone ready to make the leap from pop music to pure jazz--you'll be in capable hands.

This alblum isn't an easy listening type alblum. Rather, it's complex and at times stressful, but the highs are immense and lyrical. Parts of it are incredibly emotional and powerful. The compositions, in all cases, are tight and piercing. Wayne demonstates a fierceness in this alblum that definately was absent in his "easy lisening" Weather Report era.

Mostly I agree with what other reviewers have said, with a couple of differences. First of all, this is not purely a free jazz date, but the harmonic and rhythmic structures are BARELY there. Mostly it's a lot of rubato, instrumental colors and Shorter's ferocious blowing. Secondly, Shorter wasn't strictly easy listening in the Weather Report era. For examples, check out Waltz in Db on the Domino Theory album or Fast City on the Night Passage album or Manolete on the Sweetnighter album or the live side of the I Dream the Body Electric album. But in general, I agree--this is most consistently passionate playing of Shorter's career. Thirdly, I wouldn't recommend this as a bridge from rock to jazz. It's altogether too uncompromising. More like a bridge from fossilized, imprisoned-in-a-museum-behind-glass Wynton Marsalis [junk] to free jazz. If you would like to read more reviews like this, check out JazzboNotes.com.

This CD brings back an important transitional album for tenor-saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Doubling on soprano (which he had recently begun playing), Shorter interprets five of his originals (including "Water Babies" which had been recorded previously by Miles Davis) and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Dindi." He definitely used a forward-looking group of sidemen for his "backup band" includes guitarists John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock, Walter Booker (normally a bassist) on classical guitar for "Dindi," bassist Miroslav Vitous, both Jack DeJohnette and Chick Corea (!) on drums and percussionist Airto; Maria Booker takes a vocal on the touching version of "Dindi." The influence of Miles Davis' early fusion period is felt throughout the music but there is nothing derivative about the often-surprising results. As with Wayne Shorter's best albums, this set rewards repeated listenings.

At NYU in the late 1980s I fell in love with Free Jazz. I was into pure noise, blasting off on Ascension and Live-Evil. Little eighteen year olds do NOT think in terms of gradation and subgenre.

So when I got this-on LP. When I saw Sonny Sherrok and Chick Corea, I thought "wow--this has to be the most out jazz album ever.

It is not, and when I heard the ambient and (heaven forbid) a bossa nova, it was quickly and unjustly tossed aside, while I went back to scaring frat boys with Pharroah Sanders.

Well, hopefully, in your twenties and thirties you take time to learn how jazz, and music, really works. And so I just took this out.

Super Nova is not free or fusion or psychadlia, although this 1969 album is informed by all of those. What Shorter does here is to take the soloing of hard bop, strech and slow the time, and add electronics.

I like this album for its floating ambiance and for his fantastic saprano playing. The drawback--for me--is that none of the ideas are pushed hard enough. The fusion does not have the attack of Miles. The ambiance does not have the celestrial feel of Lonnie Liston Smith. Shorter is as nimble on Saprano as he is on tenor, and the rest of the playing is great.

The other reviewers here indicate this album is a grower, and being the mature connusour I now am (LOL) I will keep this on the turntable and possibly revist it. For now, this is pretty good, just not great