Apr 17, 2017
This is music for the ages, and a story for the ages as well.
Trumpet great Wallace Roney and his orchestra pay tribute to Newark jazz legend Wayne Shorter with the first full performance of Universe, a long-lost composition originally created for Miles Davis by Shorter. Wallace has termed hearing composition to be like finding missing gospels in the Dead Sea Scrolls, so important is the music as both an historical and a living piece of art.
Roney, of course, is the sole trumpet player that Miles Davis chose to mentor, and who joined and supported the legend on stage at his final performances in Montreux. When the members of Miles’ Second Great Quintet – Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams – wanted to tour in honor of their fallen leader, it was Roney who had the imposing task of taking the trumpet sear.
Since then he has established himself as one of the finest players around, as well as a solid composer, and a great bandleader. His current group, featuring Buster Williams (bass), Lenny White (drums) and Patrice Rushen (keyboards and piano) is among the tightest bands around.
I’ve been friendly with Wallace for a number of years now, since the late Bob Belden introduced us. During that time, and for a number of years before, Wallace has sought to bring Universe to the stage, and make a permanent recording, He seems finally ready to present both.
The story of how Universe came to be, how Wayne Shorter determined that only Roney could do it justice, and the importance of the piece are the core of Podcast 569. The story is classic, and its supplemented with Wallace performing with Shorter, Hancock, Carter and Williams on the Quintet classic “Pinocchio”, Roney and his larger ensemble performing an unreleased take of one of the parts from Davis’ Aura, and “Air Dancing” from the latest Roney album, A Place in Time.