Without A Net

No words can truly do this Wayne Shorter compilation justice. He and this group just simply continue to evolve in a grand way. This is pure art at its best and most creative. I dont know enough of the technical aspects of music to delve too deeply here but am a lifelong lover of jazz and can appreciate that this is something special. Thoroughly enjoyable. Will be playing this many, many times. There should be a 6 star category for this.Update 2/13. After my third listen I did find the words that may best sum up the brilliance and yes, the passion displayed here and they're right there early on in the midst of "Pegasus" shortly after Shorter begins a solo, when someone (presumably from the audience) is captured exclaiming "Oh my God." There is an almost spritual quality here that puts it on a par with Coltrane's "A Love Supreme".Update 3/1. After my umpteenth listen now, words that come to mind: inspired, intense, incredibly energetic, perhaps one of the best jazz recordings EVER. All musicians here playing at their finest and blending together spectacularly.Update 4/5. The 2 star review by Michael Quinlan on 4/4 is so off-base as to be almost laughable. This is no sellout. There is nothing here in this music that makes for mass appeal. Far from it! I think its safe to say this group has been on an artistic trajectory over the past decade that has set a new standard for jazz improvisation and their contibution to the art form will prove to be timeless.

What am I doing here among all these knowledgeable Wayne Shorter fans? I haven't listened to him much since his Weather Report days. However I've been buying a lot of vocal jazz and needed a change of pace. I read an article about this album in Downbeat and decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. Shorter plays both tenor and soprano sax and I've never been a fan of soprano sax. However it works for me on this album. I hope I have just a small percentage of the energy and creativity that Shorter has if and when I approach 80. I've only listened to this album about a half a dozen times but I like it better each time. And I'm getting more of an appreciation for Danilo Perez's piano work. This is not an album that works as "background music to my life." I have to set aside some time to listen to it more carefully. It is worth the effort.

On April 14, 2014, I went to “Jazz Week Tokyo” to hear the Wayne Shorter’s 80th Anniversary Concert. Band members were the same with those of the “Without A Net” album. The Shorter Quartet’s powerful and creative performances completely struck the Japanese audiences with admiration. They played non-stop 90 minutes. The first half was preview of their new album, which had various colors as in this album. And the second half was consisted of songs from “Without A Net.” As Wayne revealed in JazzTimes, they didn’t have set list. Every time they finished songs Wayne chatted with Danilo Perez and John Patitucci about next play. That interval created similar atmosphere with this album, in which most tracks are followed by applause fades.Listening “Without A Net” refreshes the last night’s excitement. This album garnered a wealth of awards last year. The album won a sweeping victory in Japan also. Wayne’s sound is cinematic with grace and strength. He often digresses from comfortable melodic lines, which creates tension among band members and conjures imagination and creativity from them. His sax sounds like an enthusiastic monologue in a drama. The Rhythm section changes the sceneries in accordance with a heat of a speech. They extend a magico-religious world around us. Through the music they appeal us the importance of clarifying our stance in every day lives, what we wish for, and what we want to be. They preach us to be courageous, fearless, and noble. The quartet’s music creates dramatic experiences, to take us to various places. All members interact powerfully with respects to each others.Thinking band’s longevity of more than 13 years, they have released very few albums. Wayne talks about a resistance from a business circle in JazzTimes. He promises using resistance as their fertilizer. He also tells DownBeat, “I’m still on the route.” He makes clear to be on the creative side. Looking forward to their next album.

It's live! Very good pieces with Wayne on his best !From second 1, Wayne and his jazzmates pull us in.A fat piano, very close to the ear, starts rolling, one by one the players step in and there they go..!The bass, snares of the piano, drum/perc. a horn, moving forward into concentrated ánd pleasurefull, kinda insuring, Real Jazz.It's the typical tone and sound of Wayne.. Heard it first time on 'Weather Report" ( that first full-energy-recording of the famous group with that same name; still a Monster in Good!) And now this is where it went..;Good Deep Digging. The piano sounds a bit fat and wiggly, an instrument that played jazz in countless times, love that! ( Or was it deliberately tuned like this.. Sound reminded me a bit of a recording from African Pianist Paul Winmer, who never came trough, but such a good feel!)It adds something like an idea of being in a roomconcert, feels close.Fine Bass! The Nrs. 6 and 7 are where it all comes together. 23+ minutes followed by 12+ min. of pure live-joy. A life of playing and here is the result ! Thank You !Cool spheres. He still has that specific cry-out. Without a net indeed, moving trough the sky in complete confidence. A concert like recorded and played here on this CD was given last year on the North Sea jazz festival in Rotterdam (NL). To me that was the highlight of the Festival. Now they do it again, on CD..!Ah, and by the way.. Value for money; it is a long CD, near 72min. + !

This recording rocks!! If you like smooth jazz, or 'need' melody then this is the wrong place. However some reviews seem to pigeon hole this music as free jazz, or avant garde. It is neither - with progressions, riffs, and chord structures holding the natural but logical development of the pieces together with a good dose of rock 'n' roll, and although the harmony is often 'out there' it is mostly tonally centered. The pieces often fall under the traditional framework of 'head and solos', though in place of traditional melodies we have more motivic themes as is commonplace in classical music - e.g. Beethoven 5th symphony 1st mvt is not a melody and works in a similar way to this music. The improvisations in fact could be said to be more rigidly based on motivic development than some more traditional jazz that can rely on too much on a players 'chops'. This aspect is a really satisfying element of this recording, and I can't stress enough that listening to clips doesn't get that across. So much so, I didn't think I could be buying a 'classic' - though I was wrong!

Jazz lovers should not miss out on this great recording which presents Shorter at his fluent best. How that man can play and the accompanying rhythm section does him proud.

Beautiful music. Hear a man's dreams come out of saxophone.

Great value

Again, a great recording by the Shorter Quartet, a little more abstract than the previous live album "Beyond The Sound Barrier". One of the best groups around in contemporary jazz...

Wayne Shorter ha tocado el saxo a lo largo de su periplo vital con lo más granado del jazz (Art Blackey, Miles Davis, por ejemplo). En este trabajo en directo del 2011, como en el títulado "Footprints Live" del 2001, uno tiene la impresión de que ahora son los otros los que tocan con Shorter (una perogrullada). El cuarteto es excelente. Merece una mención especial aquí el contrabajista John Pattituci, que, sin hacer grandes alarges ni solos "bebopianos", su contención rítmica cristaliza el enorme y rico trabajo de sus compañeros: el pianista Danilo Pérez y el baterista Brian Blade. "Without a net" es un álbum para amarlo y escucharlo muchas veces.

Wayne Shorter es un genio, eso creo que ningún amante del jazz lo puede cuestionar. En los últimos años ha vuelto al jazz acústico, y curiosamente con grabaciones en vivo, donde de verdad se vive y palpita el jazz veradero. Es uno de los saxofonistas soprano de la historia y ante todo, aunque no se le reconozca del todo un compositor excepcional . 'Without a net" es una obra maestra indiscutible. Con su ya cuarteto habitual, el gran Danilo Perez al piano, John Patittucci al bajo y el indiscutible Brian Blade a la batería han conseguido una obra intensa y llena de matices. Es para mi el mejor disco del cuarteto y una referencia indiscutible en la obra de Shorter. Como curiosidades una versión de "Plaza Real" un tema que ya tocara en la época de Weather Report, otra adaptación del famoso "Flying down to Rio" y un regalo para los sentidos que se llama "Pegasus", 23 minutos acompañado por una sección de viento y también grabado en vivo , esta vez en el Walt Disney Concert Hall, el resto esta sacado de conciertos en Europa. El Cd supone también la vuelta de Shorter al sello Blue Note, que fue donde grabo sus mejores albunes en solitario. Magico y perfecto. Indispensable para los amantes del jazz. Una obra maestra y seguro uno de los mejores discos de jazz del año.

The current quartet of Wayne Shorter has been described as his best ever band and the most important group working in jazz at the moment. Despite being around for over a decade, this is only the third full outing on disc plus the mix and match studio session "Allegria." Like the earlier recordings on the quartet, this is another compilation of live recordings and such is the excellence of this group, there is nothing to really judge between them. Everythning this quartet puts out turns to gold dust and this record is typical in the way themese are dismantled and re-assembled in a fashion with a degree of telepathy that is akin to the chemistry of Miles Davis' lengendary quintet as captured on last year's "Bootleg series # volume 1." I really don't think there is another band which matches Shorter's for creativity. The dialogue between Shorter and Perez is as compelling as ever with Pattitucci anchoring the music in a fashion that is redefining the bass in small group jazz. As ever, Brian Blade's combastic hand-grenades certainly ensure that the music remains on it's toes and he playing bristles with excitement and joy. It's fantastic to hear old works like "Orbits" totally re-working or the old Weather Report number "Plaza Real" re-caste in a pretty outside fashion. That said, the addition of the wind ensemble on the lengthy "Pegasus" neatly dovetails in to the ethos of the band and ensures that this is probably the strongest track on the whole album. Although the initial four minutes resemble something that could have been written by a classical composer in the first half of the 20th century, the whole nature of the composition changes with the introduction of the quartet with both the ante being considerably "upped" and the writing for the ensemble mirroring the more abstruct and no body solos / everybody solos aspect of the quartet. The melody of one of Shorter's best of late and somehow the ensemble manage to work up a riff to produce some of the most exciting playing on the whole record. For my money anything Wayne Shorter puts out on record must be snapped up. The standard of this record certainly matches their previous efforts and I would suggest that the including of a wind ensemble on one track does add another dimension. No group is jazz currently plays so much real music per square inch as Wayne Shorter's quartet and even in early February this is looking like a shoe in for best jazz album of 2013. An essential purchase.

How appropriate that as he approaches his 80th birthday, Wayne Shorter comes back to the label that made his name. In fact this is a return in many ways. So in the February edition of JazzWise magazine he talks about how this is going back to where he left off with Miles' great Quintet that also included Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. If you hadn't read that interview, the first track here gives you a clue, as "Orbits" was written by Shorter for that band.Much like the live band of The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965, themes in this live set can be short and cursory, leading to extended free improvisation. In the previously mentioned interview he explains how "rehearsals" just consist of the band determining not to play like they did the night before and making sure they don't repeat themselves.So in this album we have 8 tracks recorded live on the road, where we hear how this band respond to each other and play in the moment. Plus there is a 23 minute track recorded with an extended wind band/section."Pegasus" is quite different and hints at a new direction for Wayne in the contemporary classical field. The "Imani Winds" play music written and arranged carefully and not freely improvised like the rest of the album - although the quartet do take this on into spontaneous territory.In a way this album sums up the best of Shorter's brilliant career and puts him firmly at the top of his profession as both improvisor and composer. It goes without saying that all of the players here are virtuosos of the highest order, but none of the music is about showing off in any way and John Patitucci often takes a backseat, where he is very much the leader on his own records.Nearly 80 minutes of great music from the best quartet playing in world Jazz today has got to be an essential purchase for any Jazz fans, although this is edgy music performed "without a net" on the cutting edge. I have my reservations about the cover art, which I didn't really like - but that's not going to stop anybody enjoying this new release from one of Jazz's longest-running artists. The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965

At 79 years old, Wayne Shorter and his quartet (together with a bunch of guest horn players as sidemen) have produced a kind of jazz masterpiece, the definitive statement to round off a long and illustrious career.Always the quintessential musician's musician, Shorter remains true to his lifelong principles and emphatically refuses to play safe. `Without a Net' is a collection of the quartet's onstage performances from their recent European and US tours. Each of the nine pieces takes the basic theme of the number and then (usually - but not always - led by Shorter's sax) explores a new musical landscape through lengthy improvisation, the result by turns experimental and inventive, jarringly atonal or melodically sublime. An almost telepathic level of communication exists between these A-list musicians, each at the top of their game and collectively creating possibly the most seminal musical improvisations of our age. Each performance is unique, never-to-be-repeated.Ambient background dinner party jazz this definitely ain't. What Shorter offers the listener is jazz as high art: imaginative, never afraid to break boundaries, visionary and often delightfully unexpected.The jewel-case and four-page foldout insert don't exactly make for a premium package, and the simple (though distinctive in an understated way) artwork is unlikely to be destined for `classic design' status either. But this music is deep, profound, courageous, sublime. Press `play', crank up the volume and prepare to be blown away by the sheer virtuosity and inventive brilliance about to assault your ears.

Tous les 4 musiciens sont excellents, belle musicalité, parmi les meilleurs enregistrements du groupe, prenant des risques dans l'impro avec une écoute extraordinaire, une belle complicité entre eux, je ne cesse d'écouter cet opus. Bien que Wayne ait un âge avancé, je le trouve au top niveau, maîtrise absolue de l'instrument . tous les 4 se complètent à merveille. Je le recommande amateurs de Wayne Shorter, ce CD est formidable

This is a complex set of works that are enticingly well crafted and well delivered. Not surprising coming from Wayne, but sometimes his works are hit and miss. Not this one, an amazing album, in every sense of the word. Highly recommended.CheersLM

Der Mann ist nicht zu toppen. Aufnahmequalität leicht kritisch.

Recensire Wayne Shorter non è semplice, la storia musicale parla si un uomo che ha fatto la storia del jazz contemporaneo, il cd è la summa di tutto il suo jazz

Absolutely love this quartet, Imani Winds on the beautiful piece Pegasus. OMG! Excellent album, from an excellent band . 5 stars