Mr. Wayne Shorter as Carlos Santana lovingly calls him turns 80 years young this year on August 25th. I awoke this morning thinking about his brilliant legacy of jazz compositions and performances.

It’s going to be a rewarding year for us with Mr. Wayne Shorter. I want to share two recent announcements about his career that I am truly excited about. The common chord struck in these events sounded by The Wayne Shorter Quartet.

1) Newport Jazz Festival 2013

Wayne Shorter will be honored at the 59th annual Newport Jazz Festival this year on Saturday August 3rd. There will be an 80th birthday celebration for him. Wayne Shorter will appear with his stunning quartet that includes Danilo Perez (pianist), John Pattituci (bassist), and Brian Blade (drummer). There will also be guest stars and friends playing which includes his close friend Herbie Hancock.

2) The Wayne Shorter Quartet – Without A Net

The Wayne Shorter Quartet recording Without A Net was first brought to my attention by the NPR Jazz blog, A Blog Supreme. It is highlighted that consensus will prove Without A Net as top of the 15 jazz albums to look out for in 2013. We are getting closer to the actual drop date of that recording, February 5th. I hope you feel the electricity for the eminent release of Without A Net.

On February 1, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Quartet will perform four compositions by Shorter alongside works by Beethoven and Ives at Carnegie Hall.

Without A Net is a 9-track musical thrill ride that consists of live recordings from the Wayne Shorter Quartet’s European tour in late 2011, the one exception being the 23-minute tone poem “Pegasus” which features the quartet with The Imani Winds recorded at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The album features six new Shorter compositions, as well as new versions of his tunes “Orbits” (from Miles Davis’ Miles Smiles album) and “Plaza Real” (from the Weather Report album Procession). The quartet also reinvents the title song from the 1933 musical film Flying Down To Rio, which film buffs know as the first on-screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

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