NEC Jazz Orchestra + Carl Atkins: "High Life: The Music of Wayne Shorter"

In their final performance of the academic year, the NEC Jazz Orchestra will pay tribute to the legendary jazz composer and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who passed away in March 2023. Guest artists will include NEC alum Rachel Z, who performed and recorded with Wayne Shorter; Carl Atkins, the first Chair of NEC’s Jazz Studies Department; as well as current faculty members Jerry Bergonzi and Ethan Iverson. Members of the NEC Philharmonia will join the NEC Jazz Orchestra and Rachel Z for performances of three pieces from Wayne Shorter’s “High Life” recording, including the title track, Children of the Night and Midnight in Carlotta’s Hair. The program will also include Carl Atkins’s arrangements of three Shorter classics, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, Speak No Evil and Yes or No, in addition to Shorter’s own arrangements of Shere Khan, The Tiger and This is for Albert. Ethan Iverson will be featured on the premier performance of his new arrangement of Shorter’s The Chess Players. Jerry Bergonzi will play on a new arrangement of Shorter’s Infant Eyes arranged by Ken Schaphorst, NEC Co-Chair and Conductor of the NEC Jazz Orchestra.

About Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter, called a genius, a trailblazer, a visionary, was born on August 25, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey. He studied at New York University and served in the U.S. Army. He spent brief periods in the Horace Silver quintet and the Maynard Ferguson big band before his first major association, with Art Blakey’s hard-bop Jazz Messengers. Miles Davis convinced Shorter to join his quintet in September 1964, thus completing the lineup of a group whose biggest impact would leapfrog a generation into the ’80s. Staying with Miles until 1970, Shorter became the band’s most prolific composer at times, contributing tunes like E.S.P., Pinocchio, Nefertiti, Sanctuary, Footprints, Fall, and the signature description of Miles, Prince of Darkness. Herbie Hancock said: “The master writer to me, in that group, was Wayne Shorter. He still is a master. Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didn’t get changed.” Following the release of Odyssey of Iska in 1970, Shorter formed Weather Report. The band produce many high-quality recordings in diverse styles, with funk, bebop, Latin jazz, ethnic music, and futurism being the most prevalent denominators. After leaving Weather Report in 1986, Shorter continued to record and lead groups in jazz fusion styles.
In 2000, he formed the first permanent acoustic group under his name, a quartet with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade, playing his own compositions. Four albums of live recordings have been released: Footprints Live; Beyond the Sound Barrier; Without a Net; and Emanon, with the latter, in addition to live material, including Shorter’s quartet in a studio session with the 34-piece Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Wayne Shorter’s works have been performed by the Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Lyon Symphony, National Polish Radio Symphonic Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He has received commissions from the National, St. Louis, and Nashville Symphony Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the La Jolla Music Society. Shorter has realized over 200 compositions and dozens of these works have become modern standards. Shorter died on March 2, 2023, at the age of 89.

This is an in-person event with a public live stream: https://necmusic.edu/live

Wayne Shorter (arr. Carl Atkins) | Suite Wayne/Sweet Wayne

Speak No Evil

Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum

Yes or No

ARTISTS
Carl Atkins, conductor
Wayne Shorter | The Chess Players
arr. Ethan Iverson

ARTISTS
Ethan Iverson, piano
Wayne Shorter | Shere Khan, the Tiger
Wayne Shorter | This is for Albert
INTERMISSION
Wayne Shorter | Midnight in Carlotta’s Hair
ARTISTS
Rachel Z, piano
Wayne Shorter | Infant Eyes
arr. Ken Schaphorst

ARTISTS
Jerry Bergonzi, tenor saxophone
Wayne Shorter | Children of the Night
Wayne Shorter | High Life