WAYNE SHORTER — Native Dancer (review)

WAYNE SHORTER — Native Dancer album cover Album · 1975 · World Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
Taking a short break from the very busy schedule of Weather Report,, Shorter finally indulged in his fascination for Brazilian rhythms and melodies and worked with his idol Milton Nascimento in the present album, his first solo work for the Columbia label. One might think that this album might be quite a departure to what Wayne was doing in WR, but in the light of the coming Black Market and Heavy Weather albums, this finds its place quite easy in Shorter’s musical evolution. Helped out by Herbie and McDaniel, Wayne plunges in the Brazilian universe, namely with Milton (who gets a co-credit in the album’s title), the unavoidable Airto, the lesser–known (outside Brazil anyway) Tiso, Silva and Amaro. The album comes with a fairly ugly (IMHO) artwork that’s supposed to evoke the Brazilian tropics, but it’s quite kitsch.

Opening not so successfully on the mainstream-ish Ponta De Areia, with its annoying child-like vocals, ND recuperates itself on the uninventive, but sensual Beauty & Beast, but plunges into trashy soft-porn with Milton’s Tarde, a villainous syrupy slow dance track with crooner vocals. The following Miracle is not one, but obviously is a typical Brazilian folk track from Milton, but the charms do not operate on this scribbler. Shorter’s ballad Diana is a sleep-inducing lullaby. Lonely afternoons is one of the better Milton compositions of the present, but still isn’t sticking out from the pack. Actually, only Shorter’s Ana Maria (where Herbie finally shines), and the excellent and lengthier Milton-penned thoughtful Lilia (a 5/4 groove and Herbie on Rhodes and Hammond) save the album from being rather tedious and unessential (IMHO). Herbie’s Joanna (geeeeezzzz, these guys were obsessed or in serious need;o))) is also quite fine.

Definitely not my kind of album, but ND has certainly been quite influential for the upcoming wave of jazzers, including Metheny or Horta. Definitely an album that finishes in a much better fashion than it started, but to be honest, ND strikes more the target once the singers shut up (sorry Milton).
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