Alan Shorter


Alan Shorter was a free jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player, and the older brother of composer and saxophone player Wayne Shorter.

Biography

Shorter was born in the Ironbound District in Newark, New Jersey. He started on alto saxophone, but switched to trumpet after graduating from high school. He attended Howard University but soon rebelled against the ultra-conservative atmosphere and dropped out. He later graduated from New York University.
He played his first professional gigs with a local bebop big band called the Jackie Bland Band. He was very much a bebop player in his early years, but soon gravitated towards free jazz, and with the exception of six months he spent in a US Army Band, continued to play in that style for the rest of his career.
Shorter recorded two albums as a leader: Orgasm and Tes Esat. Both were out of print for many years until re-issued by Verve Records in 2004 and 2005, respectively. He also recorded five albums with saxophonist Archie Shepp, including the classic Four for Trane, two albums with Marion Brown, one album with Alan Silva, and made an appearance on one of his brother's albums. Several of these albums feature his unusual compositions, his most famous being "Mephistopheles".
In the mid-1960s, Shorter moved to Europe, leading his own avant-garde gigs in Geneva and Paris. His style of free jazz sometimes proved to be too far-out for European audiences, but he generally found European audiences more receptive than those in the U.S. Eventually, he returned to the United States, where he taught briefly at Bennington College but otherwise faded into obscurity. He died of a ruptured aorta in Los Angeles, California in 1988, at age 56, shortly after becoming engaged to Ruth Ann Hancock, a cousin of Herbie Hancock.
Shorter's playing is comparable to Don Cherry, but with a more aggressive, anarchic bent. His own albums feature his groups functioning as a unit, rather than focusing on his own virtuosity. Reportedly, his musical style is much like he was personally: deep and intellectual, but intentionally strange.

Discography

As leader

With Archie Shepp
With Wayne Shorter
With Marion Brown
  • Marion Brown Quartet
  • Juba-Lee
With François Tusques
  • Intercommunal Music
With Alan Silva'