I think that there is a natural tendency to want music (any art) to come to us as opposed to being comfortable or at least willing to go to it. Clearly, there is much more to jazz than nice, groovy drum CHIN-ka-CHIN’s and beautiful, bluesy melodies inside cozy and familiar structures. Moreover, I think that much of the more adventurous, obtuse and ultimately most interesting jazz got (and gets) a bad name because of the association to some of the "free" or "out" jazz which is arguably just bu//s$t. Obviously, there was and is a lot of great music on record that can still be put in those categories.
This is one of those records. Definitely not "free" as it is still very structured, but decidedly "out" in its shape and harmonic language. As a player Wayne Shorter is one of the true giants of jazz and one of its most interesting improvisers and composers. Speaking of associations, I think that because of his foray into fusion with Weather Report a lot of his earlier work gets overlooked by listeners new to jazz. Don’t get me wrong a lot of his fusion stuff is fantastic and shows a very interesting shift as a player to a kind of minimalist improvisation style that I like a lot in that genre. Still, for me, his stuff from the ’60’s both as a leader and with Miles is his best.
I love this record, amazing lineup playing some of the most interesting and creative jazz on record, imo. Probably not the record I would play when I get on the treadmill, it takes a kind of surrendering on the part of the listener to its unique and sometimes twisted harmonic and conceptual palette; but a pretty amazing amount of beauty and sheer brilliance overall. Listened to beginning to end, it's a pretty wild ride:
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL21CEE4FB0F07EED5
