Wayne Shorter Set To Release First New Studio Album In Five Years

: by Andrew Braithwaite; in Latest; on 25 July 2018

10-time GRAMMY winner Wayne Shorter is set for the August 24 release of his long-awaited project Emanon, his first release since 2013’s Without A Net, which marked Shorter’s return to Blue Note Records where he began his recording career in 1964.

Emanon is available for pre-order today. Watch the trailer here.

Emanon is an extraordinary musical and visual experience that presents a triple album of original music by Shorter performed by The Wayne Shorter Quartet - featuring Shorter on soprano and tenor saxophone with Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass, and Brian Blade on drums – also featuring the 34-piece Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on select tracks.

The title of this four-composition orchestral suite is also Shorter’s title character for the graphic novel: Emanon, or “no name” spelled backwards.

When Dizzy Gillespie had a piece of music in the late 40s called ‘Emanon,’ it hit me way back then as a teenager: ‘No name’ means a whole lot.

It meant something that the Dizzy Gillespie/Milton Shaw tune, arranged by John Lewis in 1946, transcended big band jazz conventions with a more modernist statement. Innovation, authenticity, and self-reliance were hallmark virtues of the midcentury art and culture that captured Shorter’s imagination and shaped his artistic character.

The music is accompanied by a graphic novel penned by Shorter with Monica Sly and illustrated by Randy DuBurke. Emanon is a physical-only release that will be available in two versions; a Standard Edition that packages 3x CDs with the graphic novel, and a Deluxe Edition that packages 3x 180g vinyl LPs and 3x CDs with the graphic novel enclosed in a beautiful hardcover slipcase.

Track Listing:

DISC 1

The Wayne Shorter Quartet With Orpheus Chamber Orchestra