He was one of the style-defining jazz saxophonists. His lyrical playing was as fascinating as his dazzling compositions. Wayne Shorter died on Thursday at the age of 89.
Wayne Shorter – here in 2003 in the Zurich Tonhalle – helped shape jazz history as a saxophonist, composer and bandleader.
Peter Fischli
Passion doesn’t have to blaze up and then die down again. In the tempered dynamics of concentration and meditation, it flourishes and germinates longer, shines and blooms brighter. Wayne Shorter was perhaps immune to the consuming fire because of his introverted character and equanimity. But maybe he got to know and banish the dangers right at the beginning of his career. He never wasted his artistic energies on expressive extremes and retained his artistic sovereignty even in intoxicating moments.
