Speak No Evil - Wayne Shorter

Sep

10

Speak No Evil - Wayne Shorter

≡ Category: 1960s, Essential, Post Bop, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING

Rating:

Let me explain a little about my rating for Speak No Evil (released on the Blue Note label). First of all, on a technical level, the music is sublime. At the time, it was revolutionary, in it’s own quiet way. But I’ve got to be honest. It doesn’t move me the way it used to, probably because I know it so well. I know damned well that Speak No Evil is a classic, but other music excites me more, so I’m taking off half a star.

When you put Speak No Evil in your CD player, it’s easy to forget it’s there. This music is in our DNA by now. It’s so much a part of our heritage that if we’re not careful, we forget just how extraordinary it is.

To begin with, there are the musicians themselves: Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Elvin Jones. All of these guys are legends, and justifiably so. You expect the playing to be gorgeous and it is.

But that’s not the true value of Speak No Evil. At the time, Shorter was in Miles Davis’ famed 2nd great quintet, and was contributing many tunes. Speak No Evil was a chance for Shorter to play his tunes his way.

The tunes seem rather simple. They’re typically drenched in blues feeling, but they aren’t really blues forms. I’m kind of at a loss of how to describe these tunes, so I’ll defer to Bruno Raberg, who does an incredibly good job of it:

“As a contrast to the simple inside melodic part of the tune there is always a bridge that provides variation and interest enough to make the composition complete. What also provides variation and makes these compositions very different from earlier writing is the harmony. Underneath these quite singable and simple sounding melodies lie very complex harmonic progressions. What we get is a perfect balance between complexity and simple lyricism…. The harmonic progressions break the common written and unwritten rules, and especially the root motion changes its role from providing simple movements in 4ths and 5ths to being vagrant and taking very unexpected paths. Due to Shorter’s uncanny sense for tension and release, and an obvious knowledge of the basics of harmony, we still feel the organic flow of logical harmonic progressions.”

I have nothing especially meaningful to add to that. Listen to the samples from Speak No Evil and you’ll see what he means.