Wayne Shorter Adam's Apple (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) 180g LP

Wayne Shorter had already set a high bar over the course of his first several Blue Note albums, which included all-time jazz classics such as Night Dreamer, JuJu, and Speak No Evil, but 1966's Adam's Apple featuring Herbie Hancock on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums, immediately joined the ranks of the saxophonist's greatest recordings and remains a pinnacle artistic statement of Blue Note's fertile post-bop era. Shorter composed five of the session's six tracks including the grooving title track, which surely had producer Alfred Lion dancing around Rudy Van Gelder's studio. Other highlights of this sublime set include Jimmy Rowles' arresting "502 Blues (Drinkin' and Drivin')," Shorter's bossa-inflected "El Gaucho," the tender ballad "Teru," and the first recording of his timeless composition "Footprints," which Shorter would record again later that year with the Miles Davis Quintet for the album Miles Smiles. The album closes with the evocative composition "Chief Crazy Horse" featuring Shorter's trademark harmonic twists and a churning solo spotlight by Chambers.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

From the first moments when Shorter's sax soars out in the eponymous opening track, with its warmth and roundness and power, it is hard not to like this album. It might not be turning as sharp of a corner stylistically as some of his earlier works, like Speak No Evil, but its impact is only dulled by the fact that Shorter has already arrived at the peak of his powers. Taken in isolation, this is one of the great works of mid-'60s jazz, but when Shorter has already achieved a unique performance style, compositional excellence, and a perfectly balanced relationship with his sidemen, it is hard to be impressed by the fact that he manages to continue to do these things album after album.