Speak No Evil Tracks
1. Witch Hunt
2. Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum
3. Dance Cadaverous
4. Speak No Evil
5. Infant Eyes
6. Wild Flower
7. Dance Cadaverous (Alternate Take)
Speak No Evil Review
Wayne Shorter's compositions helped define a new jazz style in the mid-'60s, merging some of the concentrated muscular force of hard bop with surprising intervals and often spacious melodies suspended over the beat. The result was a new kind of "cool," a mixture of restraint and freedom that created a striking contrast between Shorter's airy themes and his taut tenor solos and which invited creative play among the soloists and rhythm section. The band on this 1964 session is a quintessential Blue Note group of the period, combining Shorter's most frequent and effective collaborators. Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Elvin Jones merge their talents to create music that's at once secure and free flowing, sometimes managing to suggest tension and calm at the same time. --Stuart Broomer
Speak No Evil Review
24 bit digitally remastered Japanese reissue of classic Blue Note album in a miniaturized LP sleeve limited to the initial pressing only, and with the original artwork intact. Contains all six tracks from the original 1964 issue. 1999 release.
Wayne Shorter is one of the few major sax players. But it's the combination of playing and composing that makes him one of the greatest of all times. With 'Speak no evil' together with 'Adams apple' and 'Skizophrenia' you will get a perfect idea of Shorters early work and his huge talent. In my opion these albums are a must in understanding the evolution of jazz. And therefore a must in every jazzcollection!
'Speak no evil' is about composition. The five artists play in service of the compositions. It is about the carpet of sound and not the individual qualities. There's room for space and melodic poetry. This new approach is to be followed up for decades. It is the first solo album of Shorter without the coltraneband. This album puts him among Coltrane en Davis. This, ofcourse, was to be expected of the follower up of Coltrane in the Miles Davis Quintet.
The second album is Skizophrenia. The linernotes explanes the title as 'a retreat from reality'. Shorter finds new paths and that would make him a split-personnality in a time where people are used to stay on the same course. All the six players follow this new course and all find them selves more than capable. The music is soulfull and more important it is funky. Shorter playing is often compared with Coltrane, but on this album Shorter, in my opion, Shorter becomes one of the major players. His qualities shown here put him next to Coltrane, Rollins and Parker.
'Adam's apple' is the third great album of Wayne Shorter. With a lot of Miles Davis Quintet experience Shorter makes his best album. The compositions are (again) all beautifull, but it is the power in the playing that makes the album. It is full, sentimental, drama, spaceous and often surprising. And, mind you, this is only a quartet playing!