Wayne Shorter

At home we kept debating the wisdom of Wayne Shorter – spurred by watching the fine 3-hours doc ‘zero gravity’. He grew up in a nurturing home and explored the world with his brother – later he found nurturing and brotherhood in Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock. His music and talent for composition expanded – I love how his theme for ‘ Nefertiti’ with the Davis acoustic quintet is just repeated over and over, as if that’s enough to explore already. Interestingly though, his main personal development followed through when he separated from Miles, as if he met new love and a fuller life and new openings in the music of weather report and beyond. I don’t like weather report, but that’s not the point. What matters is how Shorter worked through changes and traumatic events in his life to build an higher plan to live in, a mental space which became vast and made room for zero gravity but also heavy losses, carrying on his vision with a broader perspective and finding again brothers, disciples, love and inspiration for new musical languages and expression. His buddhism must have helped, but the ‘Mr Gone’ of his youth was already there. A truly moving documentary tribute to the deep human trajectory of this jazz superhero.