I have been fortunate enough to meet and do some work for one of my all time musical heroes, Wayne Shorter.
The phone rang just before closing time on Saturday April 16, 2016. Esparanza Spalding was on tour with Wayne and at the last show in Germany the night before, he had an issue with his soprano. They were now on their way to NYC and wanted to see if I could help out. Of course!! I spoke with both Carolina and Wayne later that night and we set a time to meet at their midtown hotel the following day at 1pm.
Carolina and Wayne are some of the most gracious, warm and wonderful people I have met. While I diagnosed the issue with his soprano (the palm Eb key was intermittently being held open by the groove that the flat spring had created in the silver plating) and did some additional adjustments, Wayne told story after story with an extraordinary clarity.
He would effortlessly traverse a time span of 60+ years with vivid details about living above Mingus in Harlem in the 50’s, practicing with Trane, Gregory Peck stepping forward to help support when a family member fell ill in an elevator in the 80’s, his recent musical collaborations, etc.
One of the more profound stories was about Wayne on the band stand with Miles’ Quintet, during a burning Herbie solo, Miles and Wayne standing off to the side of the stage and Miles tuning to Wayne saying – and here Wayne was imitating Miles’ raspy voice:
“Wayne…tell me…when are we going to start making real music?…”
At one point, I had to make a quick run back to my shop for a couple of extra tools. When I came back an hour later, Wayne was sitting at the coffee table and composing. Various music manuscript papers spread out and melody segments with chord changes on the piece he was working on. The TV on the wall in front of him was playing the 50’s sci-fi classic “The day the earth stood still”. Wayne, while writing down musical snippets, trying them out on soprano, watching and softly repeating some of Klaatu’s lines: “We have watched, we have waited and hoped that you would change”…
Getting to spend a few hours with Wayne, a musical hero since I was a teenager, is one experience I truly treasure!
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