Iconic Jazz Saxophonist Wayne Shorter Dies at 89
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Wayne Shorter, the award-winning jazz saxophone player and composer, died Thursday in Los Angeles at 89.
Shorter won an astonishing 12 Grammy Awards during his lifetime and is best known for his innovative music and contributions to celebrated jazz albums in the 1960s and ’70s.
Born in 1933 in Newark, New Jersey, Shorter began his career in the mid-1950s when he joined Art Blakely’s Jazz Messengers after graduating from New York University with a degree in music.
In the 1960s, he joined the Miles Davis Quartet and—unlike the group’s other members—stuck with Davis for years to come, even staying by his side as Davis began to experiment with genre. During this time, Shorter also worked with Blue Note Records to record iconic albums like Juju (1965) and Speak No Evil (1966).
In the 1970s, Shorter teamed up with artists Josef Zawinul and Miroslav Vitous to found the band Weather Report. The trio released their first album, 8:30, which won Shorter his first Grammy.
From Weather Report onward, Shorter continued to solidify his reputation as a jazz icon. In 1998, he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. In 2015, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy; a year later, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow.
In 2023, he won his last Grammy—Best Improvised Jazz Solo Performance—for Endangered Species.
In his personal life, Shorter told NPR in 2013 he was a devout Buddhist, practicing Nichiren Buddhism, a Japanese branch of the religion that dates back to the 13th century.
In 1961, Shorter married Teruko Nakagami and they had a daughter, Miyako. The couple separated three years later. In 1970, Shorter married Ana Maria Patricio. Their daughter, Iska, died in 1986 at 14 years old, while Patricio died 10 years later in an aircraft crash. In 1999, Shorter wed Carolina Dos Santos, who survives him along with his daughter Miyako and a grandson.
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