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Wayne Shorter

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Musician

The Resume

    (August 25, 1933-March 2, 2023)
    Born in Newark, New Jersey
    Tenor and soprano saxophonist
    Played with Art Blakey (1959-63) and Miles Davis (1964-70)
    Member of Weather Report (1971-86)
    Recorded the albums ‘Introducing Wayne Shorter’ (1959), ‘Night Dreamer’ (1964), ‘Ju-Ju’ (1964), ‘Speak No Evil’ (1966), ‘Adam’s Apple’ (1967), ‘Super Nova’ (1969), ‘Atlantis’ (1985), ‘Joy Rider’ (1988), ‘High Life’ (1995), ‘1+1’ (with Herbie Hancock, 1997), ‘Alegria’ (2003), ‘Beyond the Sound Barrier’ (2005), ‘Without a Net’ (2013), and ‘Emanon’ (2018)
    Played sax solos on Steely Dan’s ‘Aja’ and Don Henley’s ‘End of the Innocence’
    Won 11 Grammys, plus the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2014)

Why he might be annoying:

    He frequently played hooky from high school to watch movies until he was caught forging his mother’s signature on an absence excuse.
    He said ‘I knew about two tunes’ when he joined Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.
    AllMusic commented, ‘In concert, he has fielded an erratic series of bands, which could be incoherent one year and lean and fit the next .’
    NPR noted that the adjectives most often placed in front of his name are ‘the elusive’ and ‘the enigmatic.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was named best soprano saxophonist in Down Beat magazine’s critics poll ten consecutive years (1970-79) and topped the readers poll eighteen consecutive years (1970-87).
    His daughter Iska died of a grand mal seizure at age fourteen (1986).
    His wife Ana Maria and niece Dalila died in the crash of TWA Flight 800 (July 17, 1996).
    He was named an NEA Jazz Master (1998).
    The New York Times called him ‘jazz’s greatest living composer.’ (2013)

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 118 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying