Emanon

"The 85-year-old saxophonist blends jazz, classical and his love for comics on his new three-disc audiovisual set ... Emanon, a full-length graphic novel co-written by Wayne Shorter and included with his new album of the same name, tells the story of a "rogue philosopher" who travels between worlds, spreading a message of truth and empowerment. For much of his 60-plus-year career, Shorter has been on an analogous mission. The saxophonist-composer branched out from era-defining jazz groups with Art Blakey and Miles Davis to create a legacy of innovative, genre-blurring work, on his own and in collaboration with everyone from Joni Mitchell to Carlos Santana and Milton Nascimento. The musical portion of Emanon (currently available only on CD or LP) is another milestone, combining bold orchestral statements with the mercurial spontaneity of Shorter's remarkable long-running quartet".

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"Jazz album of the month" - "Although it attempts to make a concept-package out of elements that don't really add up to one - three discs (...) linked to a vividly illustrated graphic novel based on Shorter's rather clunky dystopia-to-utopia storyline - ["Emanon"] is nonetheless another invaluable chronicle of the star's late-career music-making. On a four-part suite joining Shorter's terrific quartet and a chamber orchestra, his soprano saxophone weaves and slithers around Danilo Perez's piano variations and the orchestra's triplet-busy waltzes, and swoops on Prometheus Unbound and the restless multi-melodic shifts and free-jazz exchanges of Lotus. Shorter's classic The Three Marias gets a teasing, now-you-hear-it-now-you-don't orchestral treatment, but the quartet version is less crowded and more intriguing ... Quartet accounts of She Moves Through the Fair (though Fairport Convention fans might not recognise it) and Prometheus Unbound are sublimely thrilling exercises in collective spontaneity".

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