Wayne Shorter: Night Dreamer (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

Kevin Gray mastered this Classic Vinyl Series edition from the original analogue tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl in the EU. Six Shorter originals, including "Black Nile" and the title track, make it one of the essential post-bop records of the 60s.

This edition

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
• Mastered from the original analogue tapes by Kevin Gray
• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

On April 29, 1964, Wayne Shorter walked into Rudy Van Gelder's studio with a head full of new ideas and made his first album for Blue Note. Alfred Lion produced, and the band was the kind a label assembles when it believes in you.

McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, on loan from Impulse, bring muscle and momentum, Reggie Workman holds down the bass, and Lee Morgan adds bright trumpet. Shorter wrote all six tunes and said his writing had become simpler: fewer chords, more space. The title track floats in a minor-key 3/4 that he said always meant evening to him, "Oriental Folk Song" came from an old Chinese melody he first heard in a commercial, "Virgo" is named for his star sign, and "Black Nile" flows like the river it's named for. "Armageddon" closes it as the album's centrepiece.

Shorter described the record as a kind of judgment day, though his idea of it was total enlightenment rather than fire and brimstone. He also got a commercial jingle into a jazz classic, which is the sort of upcycling we can all get behind.

Also at Kops: more Wayne Shorter on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note / UMe (cat# 5552940), a reissue of the 1964 album.