After Bess's departure, what becomes of Porgy? Having fallen in love with Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, the brilliant pianist and arranger Vyacheslav Gryaznov decided to answer this question by taking up the opera's themes. With Rhapsody in Black, a concerto for piano and orchestra, he picks up the story where the opera leaves off: Bess in New York, Porgy following in her footsteps. Neither a pastiche nor a simple arrangement, Rhapsody in Black reclaims Gershwin's legacy by blending electrifying improvisations, big-band sonorities, and poetic ballads. With this New York fresco, complemented by Rhapsody in Blue, Gryaznov creates an extraordinarily vibrant diptych, superbly brought to life by the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien and Wayne Marshall, a leading specialist and outstanding interpreter of Gershwin.

Wayne Shorter - "Introducing Wayne Shorter (Original Jazz Classics Series)". The debut album from the legendary jazz saxophonist, Introducing Wayne Shorter was originally released on VeeJay in 1960. Included are five Shorter originals and cover of "Mack The Knife," with Shorter joined by Lee Morgan (trumpet), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Jimmy Cobb (drums). This new edition of the album is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series on 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes at Cohearent Audio and a Stoughton Tip-On Jacket.

Wayne Shorter - "The Soothsayer (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition)". Two months after recording his masterpiece Speak No Evil, saxophonist Wayne Shorter was back in the studio recording The Soothsayer, featuring Freddie Hubbard, James Spaulding, McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. The sextet delivers deeply engaged performances of five beguiling Shorter originals plus an arrangement of Sibelius' "Valse Triste." This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Double vinyl LP pressing. 2024 release. Celebration, Volume 1 is the first in a series of archival releases that the legendary saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter curated before he passed away in 2023. This thrilling 2014 live recording captured Shorter's acclaimed quartet with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade at the Stockholm Jazz Festival in Sweden. The intrepid set includes some of the band's favorite vehicles of exploration including "Zero Gravity," "Smilin' Through," "Orbits," "Lotus," and "She Moves Through The Fair."

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. 1964 was a momentous year in the musical life of Wayne Shorter. At the start of the year the saxophonist was still a member of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, appearing on classic Blue Note albums like Free for All and Indestructible. Shorter made his own auspicious label debut that spring with Night Dreamer and that summer he joined the Miles Davis Quintet cementing a line-up that would become one of the seminal bands in jazz history. When he returned to the studio for Blue Note in August it was in the company of three musicians with strong ties to John Coltrane: pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Elvin Jones. The resulting album JuJu is a marvel in Shorter's formidable discography which presents six of his evocative original compositions including the churning title track, the mesmerizing "House of Jade," and the brightly swinging "Yes Or No."

Vinyl LP pressing. The winds of change were blowing through Wayne Shorter's life and career in 1970. The saxophonist had just left Miles Davis' group and was soon to form his collective fusion band Weather Report. His music was evolving too as he began to delve into his own unique fusion explorations on his previous two Blue Note recordings Super Nova and Moto Grosso Feio. Recorded in August 1970, the mesmerizing Odyssey of Iska would be the last release of Shorter's early Blue Note period. The album was a tribute to his daughter Iska-who had been born the year before with severe brain damage-with four immersive Shorter compositions portraying a variety of moods: "Wind," "Storm," "Calm," and "Joy." The album's centerpiece is an extended version of Bobby Thomas' Brazilian influenced piece "De Pois do Amor, o Vazio" (After Love, Emptiness), foreshadowing Shorter's growing interest in Brazilian music which he would explore further in the years to come. Shorter's soprano and tenor saxophones are the lone horns heard on the album which featured Gene Bertoncini on guitar, David Friedman on vibraphone and marimba, Ron Carter and Cecil McBee on bass, and Alphonse Mouzon, Billy Hart, and Frank Cuomo contributing drums and percussion.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing housed deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket. Wayne Shorter's 1967 album Schizophrenia found the legendary saxophonist at the pinnacle of post-bop with a sextet of like-minded musical explorers including James Spaulding, Curtis Fuller, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Joe Chambers performing Shorter originals like "Tom Thumb," "Go," and "Miyako." This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Series was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes.

Wayne Shorter -"Footprints Live (Verve By Request Series)" / This live album (released on vinyl for the first time) is made up of 3 European dates in 2001 and introduced Shorter's "Footprint Quartet" - pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. All are in top form, especially on challenging reimaginations of the title track and "Masquelero," both from his time with the 1960's Miles Davis Quintet. Verve By Request Series features transfers from the analog tapes remastered on 180-gram vinyl.

Double vinyl LP pressing. Wayne Shorter is arguably the greatest living jazz composer and a key participant in some of the most iconic jazz recordings of all time. Congratulations to Terri Lyne Carrington, who won the GRAMMY Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album for her groundbreaking project, new STANDARDS Vol. 1. And congratulations to Wayne Shorter & Leo Genovese, who won Best Improvised Jazz Solo for "Endangered Species," from the Carrington-produced Live At The Detroit Jazz Festival, by the quartet of Shorter, Carrington, Genovese and esperanza spalding. Carrington, who produced and performed on both projects, entered the GRAMMY Awards with four nominations. New STANDARDS Vol. 1 and Live At The Detroit Jazz Festival, released on Candid Records, were each nominated in both the Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo category. It's been a tremendous year for Carrington, who is an NEA Jazz Master, virtuoso jazz drummer, composer, interdisciplinary artist, activist, educator, 7-time GRAMMY nominee, and now a 4-time winner. Carrington was also honored by the Recording Academy's Producers and Engineers Wing at their annual event.

Wayne Shorter is arguably the greatest living jazz composer and a key participant in some of the most iconic jazz recordings of all time. Congratulations to Terri Lyne Carrington, who won the GRAMMY Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album for her groundbreaking project, new STANDARDS Vol. 1. And congratulations to Wayne Shorter & Leo Genovese, who won Best Improvised Jazz Solo for "Endangered Species," from the Carrington-produced Live At The Detroit Jazz Festival, by the quartet of Shorter, Carrington, Genovese and esperanza spalding. Carrington, who produced and performed on both projects, entered the GRAMMY Awards with four nominations. New STANDARDS Vol. 1 and Live At The Detroit Jazz Festival, released on Candid Records, were each nominated in both the Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo category. It's been a tremendous year for Carrington, who is an NEA Jazz Master, virtuoso jazz drummer, composer, interdisciplinary artist, activist, educator, 7-time GRAMMY nominee, and now a 4-time winner. Carrington was also honored by the Recording Academy's Producers and Engineers Wing at their annual event.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP mastered by Kevin Gray Directly from the original master tapes. Wayne Shorter had already set a high bar over the course of his first several Blue Note albums, which included all-time jazz classics including Night Dreamer, JuJu, and Speak No Evil, but 1966's Adam's Apple featuring Herbie Hancock on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums immediately joined the ranks of the saxophonist's greatest recordings and remains a pinnacle artistic statement of Blue Note's fertile post-bop era. Shorter composed five of the session's six tracks including the grooving title track, which surely had producer Alfred Lion dancing around Rudy Van Gelder's studio.

Wayne Krantz uncharacteristically digs deep into the archive to release what was to be his first record, 1985's "Music Room." The 28-minute, 6-song CD testifies to the fact that even 35 years ago, before getting any professional experience as a sideman or leader, Krantz was already running with a distinct stylistic take on the art of the groove, on the synthesis of pop and jazz, on the song-over-solo sensibility that has driven many of his subsequent 11 official releases. "Music Room 1985" is a heretofore unknown blast from the past, resplendent with accounts of the present and rumors of the future. It's a time capsule filled with vitality, humor, romantic notions and - dare I say it - hope.

Saxophonist Wayne Shorter can divide his long and distinguished career into phases. In the early years he played the role of sideman with great distinction, being singled out as a truly original stylist who also brought his considerable composing talents to the table before enjoying a period of popular recognition during the Seventies. In 1959 he got the chance to record under his own name for the first time. 'Introducing Wayne Shorter', comprised four of his own compositions alongside a Roland Kirk original and the classic Brecht/Weill 'Mack The Knife'. The album is a hardbop concoction, with Morgan and a Miles Davis rhythm section adding weight to an impressive debut

Among the most celebrated and respected saxophonists of the post-bop age, Wayne Shorter's influence on the entire jazz spectrum remains as potent and relevant today as ever it did. Having come to prominence with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the late 1950s, and played in Miles Davis' 'second great quintet' from the mid-60s, Shorter is remembered best as one of the founding members of the legendary Weather Report. However, the albums on which he served as leader, released between 1959 and 1964, best represent the output of this iconic musician, bandleader and composer. This 4CD boxset highlights the early, albeit crucial, years of Wayne Shorter's solo career, both as bandleader and as contributor. A true pioneer in jazz, this collection serves as both the ideal starting place for those new to the great man's work, and as a delightful reminder of it's depth and colour, for those already familiar.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Recorded on June 14, 1965 at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, but not released on Blue Note until 1980. The band features Cecil McBee (bass), Joe Chambers (drums), Herbie Hancock (piano), and Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone).

Known globally for his uncompromising musical vision, staggering virtuosity and deep reserves of soul, Wayne Krantz is one of very few modern guitarists to venture beyond the instrument's limitations and create an identifiably original style and sound. Good Piranha/Bad Piranha is his full-throttle double-take on four contemporary pop and hip-hop songs, from which he plunders the textural, rhythmic and harmonic intrigue that has come to define each of his unique projects. Krantz has scaled back the setting and material for his tenth outing as a leader. Good Piranha/Bad Piranha finds his trio in the studio revisiting a selection of cover tunes they performed during legendary recent appearances at the 55 Bar in Greenwich Village.Joining Krantz on Good Piranha/Bad Piranha are his longtime trio mates Keith Carlock (Steely Dan, Sting) on drums and Tim Lefebvre (Tedeschi Trucks Band) on bass. Recent cohort Nate Wood (Kneebody) reprises his chameleonic role in Krantz' touring band, appearing here on bass for the first versions of the four tunes and then on drums for the second. The material is delicately enhanced by occasional vocal interjections courtesy Gabriela Anders.

Although he is originally from Great Britain, he has spent most of his life in the northeastern part of the United States. Born in London on February 23, 1975, Escoffery was only 11 when he left the U.K. with his mother and moved to New Haven, CT in 1986. That year, he joined the New Haven Trinity Boys Choir, and it was also in 1986 that he began studying the tenor sax with saxophone/clarinetist Malcolm Dickinson. Escoffery was still in his teens when he met the famous alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, who Escoffery has described as a mentor and a major inspiration in his life; Escoffery studied with McLean extensively at the Hartt School, a performing arts school in West Hartford. After that, he attended the New England Conservatory in Boston and graduated from that institution with a Masters in 1999 before moving to New York City the following year at the age of 25.

2009 marks the return of New York based guitarist Wayne Krantz. Few musicians are capable of handling, or willing to face, the degree of risk Krantz throws himself into so intently. His dangerous, boldly imperfect music is almost entirely of the moment, and has won him an increasing amount of underground buzz as something of an anti-guitar hero. Now, with "Krantz Carlock Lefebvre", his first album for artist friendly, eclectic label Abstract Logix, he is returning to a recording studio for the first time in over fifteen years. Featuring drummer Keith Carlock and bassist Tim Lefebvre.

Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Herbie Hancock (piano); Reggie Workman (bass); Joe Chambers (drums). Producer: Alfred Lion. Recorded on February 3 & 24, 1966. Includes liner notes by Don Heckman and Michael Cuscuna. Personnel: Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Herbie Hancock (piano); Joe Chambers (drums). Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder. Liner Note Authors: Don Heckman; Bob Blumenthal. Recording information: Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (02/24/1966). Photographer: Francis Wolff. For Adam's Apple Wayne Shorter returned to the simple quartet format for the last time in his solo career. This date from 1966 shows the saxophonist firmly between his modal style of the early '60s and his more experimental avant-garde period that was to come with albums like Schizophrenia and Super Nova. The effect of Shorter's membership in Miles Davis' legendary group is evident, as his improvisations here are more adventurous and his rhythmic drive more pointed and angular than previous efforts. Above all, this session gives us one last look at Shorter at his most unveiled. The soulful opening title track is a direct precursor to the Jazz-Rock style that would dominate the Jazz world in the late '60s and '70s. A more traditional feel is incorporated for the dark "502 Blues (Drinkin' and Drivin'), " a beautiful showcase for Shorter's sensitive side. The bossa nova "El Gaucho" is a highlight and one the saxophonist's most overlooked compositions. Of special note, the classic "Footprints" is presented here for the first time, several months before it was recorded by the Davis group. The delicate ballad "Teru, " the bouncing "Chief Crazy Horse" and the bonus swinger "The Collector" complete this must-have session.