''Speak No Evil'' is the sixth album by
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Dav ...
. It was released in June 1966 by
Blue Note Records. The music combines elements of
hard bop
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...
and
modal jazz
Modal jazz is jazz that makes use of musical modes, often modulating among them to accompany the chords instead of relying on one tonal center used across the piece. Although precedents exist, modal jazz was crystallized as a theory by compose ...
, and features Shorter on tenor saxophone, trumpeter
Freddie Hubbard, pianist
Herbie Hancock, bassist
Ron Carter and drummer
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era.
Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such widely celebrate ...
. The cover photo is of Shorter's first wife, Teruko (Irene) Nakagami, whom he met in 1961.
Reception
''Speak No Evil'' was one of several albums Shorter recorded for Blue Note in 1964, his first year as a member of
Miles Davis's mid-1960s quintet. The album is generally regarded as one of Shorter's finest, and also a highlight of the Blue Note catalogue. ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' selected this album as part of its suggested "Core Collection" calling it "by far Shorter's most satisfying record".
Murray Horwitz stated in 2001 that "''Speak No Evil'' is sort of a consolidation of Wayne Shorter's compositional excellence. It's so thorough and consistent and wide-ranging. It's almost a manifesto for his ideas. Those ideas were new 40 years ago, but they're still fresh today."
[Horwitz, Murray (August 1, 2001]
"Wayne Shorter: 'Speak No Evil'"
npr.org Rough Guide
Rough Guides Ltd is a British travel guide book and reference publisher, which has been owned by APA Publications since November 2017. In addition to publishing guidebooks, the company also provides a tailor-made trips service based on customer ...
author
Ian Carr
Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-fusion band Nucleus, and was an associate professor at the Guildhall ...
wrote it is "a classic album in terms of both composition and improvisation, and has been inspirational for many musicians".
''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' critic
Ben Ratliff
Ben Ratliff (born 1968 in New York City) is an American journalist, music critic and author.
Ratliff is the son of an English mother and an American father, growing up in London and in Rockland County, New York.
From 1996 to 2016, he wrote a ...
included the album in his publication ''Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings'' stating that it offers "the first taste of a gnomic compositional style that would haunt jazz forevermore.
..Just about everybody playing jazz born in the 1950s and after accepts it as a foundation."
Releases
''Speak No Evil'' was initially released on LP in 1966, as BLP 4194 and BST 84194. The first CD release was in 1987. A 1999 CD version, supervised by
Rudy Van Gelder
Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Theloni ...
, included an alternate take of "Dance Cadaverous". A remastered limited edition was issued in Japan on SHM-CD in 2013, including two previously unissued alternate takes.
In January 2020, a new vinyl version remastered by
Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes was released by Blue Note as part of their Classic Vinyl Reissue Series.
Track listing
''All compositions by Wayne Shorter.''
Personnel
*
Freddie Hubbard –
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
*
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Dav ...
–
tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
*
Herbie Hancock –
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
*
Ron Carter –
bass
*
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era.
Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such widely celebrate ...
–
drums
References
External links
Wayne Shorter - ''Speak No Evil'' (rec. 1964, rel. 1966) album releases & creditsat
Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...
Wayne Shorter - ''Speak No Evil'' (rec. 1964, rel. 1966) album to be listenedon
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
Wayne Shorter - ''Speak No Evil'' (rec. 1964, rel. 1966) album to be listenedon
YouTube
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{{Authority control
1966 albums
Blue Note Records albums
Wayne Shorter albums
Albums produced by Alfred Lion
Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio
Hard bop albums