Introducing Wayne Shorter

Here’s where it all began: The first of three Vee-Jay sessions before Shorter’s propitious move to Blue Note finds him not only in excellent form on tenor, but also laser-focused on original compositions—not something you get with every artist’s debut album. One exception: Shorter closes with “Mack the Knife,” a standard that was also in Sonny Rollins’ repertoire around this time. The stellar rhythm section—pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Jimmy Cobb—is essentially borrowed from Miles Davis’ group of the period. And sharing the front line is trumpeter Lee Morgan, Shorter’s bandmate in The Jazz Messengers. Shorter could hardly go wrong. But it’s not a given for a newcomer’s tunes to be as strikingly mature and infectious as “Blues a La Carte” and “Harry’s Last Stand.” Clearly, this was a major voice in the music, destined for greatness.

Also known as Blues A La Carte, this Vee Jay disc has tenor-saxophonist Wayne Shorter's first session as a leader and it shows that, even at this early stage, Shorter was far along toward developing his own sound.