Alan Shorter's Role on the All Seeing-Eye

[Guy Berger]

Alan Shorter plays his only solo on (the extremely creepy) "Mephistopheles", but he plays in all the other ensembles, right?

Guy

[bertrand]

Excellent question, which I will eventually have to resolve for this Wayne discography I am working on.

I had always assumed that Alan only played on his composition, but standard discographies were never clear about this. There are some unresolved problems that this assumption raises:

1. Does Alan play on this track instead of Freddie, or is this a five-horn arrangement?

2. David Weiss pointed out to me that wo trumpets are audible on 'Genesis', which would lead me to think that perhaps Alan plays throughout.

I have not listened to this is awhile - clearly I need to revisit this album. I wish I had a more musical ear - I could probably pick these things out.

I will add this question to the list of questions I want to ask Wayne if ever I get enough nerve to ask for a formal interview (as opposed to throwing one or two quickies at him when I see him backstage at the Monk competition every year).

Bertrand.

Edited November 5, 2004 by bertrand

[Big Al]

Wow, I just figured it was as simple as saying, "Nope, Alan's only on 'Mephistopheles.'" Maybe not!

[bertrand]

Another question I had is whether the 5 tracks on the mystery rejected session from 10/70 were completely improvised in the studio (as their sketchy titles seem to suggest), or whether written music was present at the session.

I asked McCoy about this last night at Blues Alley, but of course he could not remember the date. It was a shot in the dark, but always worth a try!

Bertrand.