Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The quartet that Wayne Shorter put together in 2001 was one of the great ensembles in modern jazz. Its spellbinding performances and internal chemistry lifted collective improvisation to another level. In 2018, the saxophonist developed lung problems and the band played its final gig. Shorter died five years later, a few months shy of his 90th birthday.This typically robust quartet performance, recorded at the Stockholm Jazz Festival in 2014, is the first of a series of archival releases that Shorter curated in the year before his death. Now released as Celebration, Volume 1, it finds Shorter and his colleagues mixing band staples — Arthur Penn’s “Smilin’ Through”, a favourite of both Shorter and Vera Lynn, appeared on the quartet’s 2005 album Beyond the Sound Barrier — with new material. Shorter’s version of Arthur B Rubinstein’s “Edge of The World (End Title)”, drawn from the soundtrack of the 1983 motion picture WarGames, makes its first appearance on disc.The album begins with pianist Danilo Perez confidently leading the rhythm section into “Zero Gravity to the 15th Dimension”, the first of five gripping group improvisations. Folk-like piano builds to a peak, drummer Brian Blade rumbles quietly in the background and Shorter’s lines cohere over bassist John Patitucci’s dancing counterpoint. The piece segues seamlessly into a shifting moods inspired by “Silin’ Through”.Later in the set, a fresh take on “Orbits”, originally from the 1967 Miles Davis album Miles Smiles, begins with Shorter whistling obliquely over the familiar piano riff. In contrast, his later composition “Lotus” begins with sustained soprano sax hovering confidently in acres of space. Both pieces turn, twist and fully engage. The five improvised “Zero Gravities” are scattered through the set, following different yet equally demanding paths.The album closes with “She Moves Through the Fair”, inspired by a traditional Irish ballad, which first appeared on the 2018 album Emanon. Here, four minds act as one; it’s a stunning 20-minute epic of high drama and bliss.★★★★★‘Celebration, Volume 1’ is released by Blue Note
