Wayne Shorter With Milton Nascimento - Native Dancer - 1974

1. Ponta De Areia
2. Beauty And The Beast
3. Tarde
4. Miracle Of The Fishes
5. Diana
6. From The Lonely Afternoons
7. Ana Maria
8. Lilia
9. Joanna's Theme

Timeless Beautiful Soulful Music
Wayne Shorter is one of the great musicians of his generation. And Native Dancer is one of the finest and most beautiful works ever pressed into vinyl or burned into a disc. This is an all time great, a must for any admirer of Shorter or superstar Milton Nascimento.
Smart, incisive, Shorter plays with a measured balance of heart and head. His earliest music chronicles a young man's attempt to first sound as good as Coltrane, then with age, like himself. Shorter is one of those horn players instantly recognizeable. I heard Native Dancer for the first time as a freshman at college. I was a Shorter fan by then, both the early SHorter (Juju, Speak No Evil, etc.), as well as the later Weather Report work. I loved Airto, and played his Fingers album 24/7 when that came out.
But Native Dancer which includes Herbie Hancock playing with untouchable virtuosity and Milton singing all over the octaves, and Shorter's soprano sax loving, laughing, weeping -- well, it doesn't get much better. The music here goes deeply to one's soul..
It's odd. I don't speak a word of Portuguese, but everytime I hear Tarde -- and I've heard it a thousand times -- the words and the music break my heart.
Buy this cd. - 	Rabbi Keith Stern (Newton Centre, MA USA) (Amazon.com)

An important bridge between Brazil & modern American jazz
A fairly solid commercial jazz album, from the height of the fusion days, this is the first of many collaborations between soprano sax player Shorter and the dreamy-spacy Nascimento. This album had a profound impact on the '70s jazz scene, introducing a more modern, non-bossa nova Brazilian sound into the experimentation of the time. Milton Nascimento performs on and contributes several songs, and although Shorter takes some interesting chances with Nascimento's material (particularly on the melodically-deflated version of "Lilia"), ultimately he seems to have lacked the compositional strength that would have made this a truly great album. As it is, it's a little goopy, and many of the songs lack true resonance. - Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com (...in Middle America) (Amazon.com)

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NATIVE DANCER was Shorter's first collaboration with Brazilian superstar Milton Nascimento, and helped introduce Nascimento to American audiences. Personnel: Wayne Shorter (soprano & tenor saxophones); Milton Nascimento (vocals); Herbie Hancock, Airto Moreira, Dave McDaniel, Roberto Silva, Wagner Tiso, Jay Graydon, Dave Amaro. Recorded at Village Recorders, Los Angeles, California on September 12, 1974. Includes liner notes by Bill Milkowski. Digitally remastered by Debra Parkinson (CBS Records Studio, New York). This is part of the Columbia Contemporary Jazz Masters series. This album is a rare gem. A lush Brazilian-jazz hybrid, it was released in the midst of Wayne Shorter's tenure with Weather Report, after an astounding run of inventive post-bop releases for the Blue Note label in the '60s. Five of the nine tracks were written by Milton Nascimento, and NATIVE DANCER's success on its release in 1975 served to introduce this fine Brazilian singer/composer to an American audience. The aptness of the pairing of these two musicians is readily apparent on a tune such as "Tarde," where Nascimento's vocal phrasing mirrors Shorter's saxophone. The ensemble is equally inspired, with Herbie Hancock as adept at the propulsive funkiness of "Beauty and the Beast" as the luxurious reveries of "Miracle of the Fishes." One of several essential titles by Wayne 
Shorter, NATIVE DANCER offers constant and layered delights from start to finish. 

LYRICAL,BEAUTIFUL,VARIED,ACCESSIBLE
From the plaintive vocal to start the CD to the sweet tone of Wayne's sax to complete it, this is wonderful Latin-esque jazz that is timeless---Why couldn't all the bland "smooth jazz" of today have some creativity and beauty like this? Milton Nascimento's voice and Wayne Shorter's sax fit so well together, and Herbie Hancock's melodic and solid piano helps them tell stories. The remastered quality sound of this CD is warm and very clear--worth every penny!!!
Submitted by THERYUGO in TAMPA FLORIDA

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1086848/a/Native+Dancer.htm

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 Wayne Shorter (n.1933)
> sax tenor, sax soprano, sax alto

Compositor e saxofonista, Wayne Shorter é considerado um dos mais influentes músicos do jazz moderno. Nascido no dia 25 de agosto de 1933 em New Jersey, freqüentou a NYU, onde se graduou em artes. Por um curto período, antes de entrar para o exército em 1956, Shorter toca na banda de Horace Silver e, ao sair de lá, excursiona com a Big Band de Maynard Ferguson. No mesmo ano entra para os Jazz Messengers de Art Blakey, onde permanece por cerca de quatro anos, ganhando maior notoriedade e recebendo o prêmio de Saxofonista Revelação da revista Down Beat.

O ano de 1964 foi especialmente prolífico para Shorter, que gravou três obras-primas do jazz - Night Dreamer, Ju Ju e Speak no Evil - antes de deixar os Jazz Messengers para juntar-se à segunda formação do quinteto de Miles Davis, que contava ainda com a participação de Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter e Tony Williams.

Wayne Shorter é considerado por muitos a amálgama desta legendária formação, da qual faria parte até 1970. Improvisador de grandes recursos, passou a ser o saxofonista mais destacado dentro da cena jazzística depois da morte de John Coltrane. Em 1970, sai para formar a espinha dorsal do grupo Weather Report junto com o pianista e tecladista austríaco Joe Zawinul, com quem já havia tocado na orquestra de Maynard Ferguson. Shorter permanece no Weather Report até 1985, e nesta época sua fama já extrapolava os meios jazzísticos, o que o levou a participar de álbuns de músicos pop como Joni Mitchell e Steely Dan.

Seu disco solo de 74, Native Dancer, é considerado um clássico e conta com a participação de grandes músicos, como os brasileiros Milton Nascimento e Airto Moreira alem de Herbie Hancock. Participou do filme Round Midnight e da respectiva trilha sonora (que deu o Oscar a Hancock), onde toca ambos os saxofones.

Seja em sua carreira solo ou junto ao Weather Report, Shorter ajudou a redefinir novas fronteiras musicais, adicionando ao jazz elementos da música clássica, do rock e sons eletrônicos. Exceto por alguns curtos períodos de descanso, Shorter tem excursionado com bastante freqüência mundo afora e como outros grandes do jazz tem revelado jovens talentos. Não se deve esquecer o fato de que Shorter é também um grande compositor de temas, que se tornaram verdadeiros standards do jazz moderno.

(FJ / VAB)

http://www.ejazz.com.br/detalhes-artistas.asp?cd=165

