Native Dancer

Wayne Shorter’s glorious run on Blue Note Records was behind him when he made *Native Dancer* for Columbia in 1974, his last solo effort until 1985. (Weather Report was his focus in the interim.) The mix of samba and funk was more mainstream than the swing and abstraction of earlier efforts but a portent of jazz to come, hailed as a new paradigm of arranging finesse. Brazil’s Milton Nascimento looms large here, contributing five songs and vocals in Portuguese, his yearning voice meshing beautifully with Shorter’s soprano and tenor saxes. Herbie Hancock and Airto Moreira, on keyboards and percussion, add layer upon layer of textural allure.