Wayne Shorter's solo on "Free for All"

[Late]

When you have the time, re-listen to Wayne Shorter's solo on "Free for All," from the Messengers album of this same title on Blue Note. Then, if you're inclined, post your thoughts here.

In my opinion, this has got to be one of the most inspired jazz solos ever. After a development of its materials, this solo reaches certain ecstatic highs that, instead of suddenly ending or fading back into the ensemble, push themselves again into even higher levels of intensity. (I believe it's Blakey who you can audibly hear, at least twice during this solo, cry out extended Whoo's.)

I find it utterly exhausting and renewing. When I need an adrenaline rush, or something to reaffirm my faith in the world, I often turn just to this solo. (Not that Fuller's or Hubbard's or Blakey's following solos are forgettable, mind you. I just think that Wayne reaches an altogether different plateau on this particular track.)

Even though I've just chatted this solo up to be a slice of nirvana, I'd be interested to hear your own thoughts — positive, negative, indifferent, decaf, caf, what-have-you. Does it reach you?

[Alexander Hawkins]

Absolutely agree. He cranks up the tension round by round, and then when you think there's nothing left, takes it up again (sorry for the liberal use of cliche!). Blakey stokes the whole thing in unbelievable fashion.

If I can ask a supplementary question, are there any performances similar to this in the Blakey canon?

I find this sort of thing difficult to comment constructively about; solos like this are such an emotional enterprise that anything rational is very difficult to come up with.

But yes, count me in as someone absolutely entranced by this playing!

[Jad]

Just got this one last week and hadn't given it a good spin yet, but thanks for pointing it out. Yeah, it's a great solo, not only for Shorter, but I LOVE Blakey's playing here.

[J Larsen]

Free for All was my first Blakey, and it inspired me to quickly expand my collection of his BN output. All of the Blakey albums featuring Shorter are easily recommended. It's hard to go wrong with this period of the Messengers. Free for All remains my favorite Blakey feat. Shorter record, likely because it was my first one.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

That one track is a helluva thing. Such incredible energy!!!!

If you want to cry - or laugh - see if you can get a listen to the version of Free For All that is included as part of the Lincoln Center Jazz for Kids educational curriculum package. Anemic is the word that I find to be apt. Every last bit of vitality has been sucked out of it. Sucked is another apt word. And this is what J@LC wants to represent the style. Antithesis is another apt word.

Mike

[BFrank]

Awesome - from the first time I heard it.

[Late]

Mike, I think I will have to stay away from the performance you mention.

I only got to see (hear) Blakey live once, and it was a fine show. (The edition was Blanchard, Harrison, Toussant, Miller, Plaxico.) His playing then ('84) was still full of vitality, but you could hear some recycling of favorite ideas (i.e. quarter note triplets on the crash cymbal; eighth-triplet-eigth figures between toms against a 2/4 hi-hat). Not that this was necessarily a bad thing — because it swung like hell — but it makes me think now that Free For All stands somewhat outside the general pantheon of Blakey-led sessions.

I know this thread was started on Wayne's solo, and, to connect the above paragraph to the thread's topic, I wonder if the energy so evident on wax here is due at least in part to Wayne's imminent departure from this band. In other words (if I'm correct in believing that Wayne had given notice, or at least had talked to Blakey about giving notice *), was Blakey wanting to take this particular edition of the Messengers out in grand fashion, and somewhat outside their comfort zone? I've never heard Blakey himself play quite like this — or, for that matter, so loud! I'm hearing his bass drum figures more prominently, and more aggressively, than in other recordings (compare the contemporaneous Mosaic), and some of his favorite riffs are absolutely obliterated here. And (again, as I hear this track) this seems a direct response to the opening solo.

The studio must have been shaking. What a day this must have been for Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff. And Rudy, bless him, how the hell was he supposed to balance the input with Blakey's drums like that?

* I'm sure someone here can straighten me out on the Blakey chronology and sessionography. I can't now remember if Indestructible, which to me is a much tamer while also fine recording, came after Free For All. I know that one has Lee on it, so maybe it was Hubbard's departure that contributed to the spark that lit the fire. Ah, theories!