Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Leo Genovese & Esperanza Spalding Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival 2LP

On Sept. 3, 2017, attendees of the Detroit Jazz Festival witnessed a very special and unique one-time event. A set by a multi-generational jazz super group. A masterful quartet comprised of Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding, and Leo Genovese.

At last, the rest of us get to enjoy this magnificent performance.

The musicians had, at the most, an outline of how the music that evening might evolve. In a testament to the level of trust and respect between these great artists, they left the rest open for on-the-spot spontaneity. Terri Lyne Carrington remembers, "We rehearsed some themes earlier that day, but the preparation was really from our lives and profound experiences with each other." In other words, four lifetimes of music made these performances possible. The artificial boundaries between composition and improvisation, ensemble and solos were erased. The quartet operated as its own entity, creating music that not only delighted and intrigued the audience but the musicians themselves.

Whether it is the Shorter / Spalding composition "Endangered Species" (which explores several moods and is filled with free-form explorations), Milton Nascimento's thoughtful ballad "Encontros e Despedidas," Geri Allen's "Drummers Song," or Shorter's haunting "Midnight in Carlotta's Hair," the quartet's interpretations are consistently unpredictable and memorable. But one could use those descriptions to sum up the great Wayne Shorter's entire career.

Shorter has worked with vocalists on occasion throughout the years, most notably Milton Nascimento (on 1974's Native Dancer), Joni Mitchell and Lionel Loueke. But his interplay with Esperanza Spalding's voice here on several of these selections is on a different level altogether. Spalding's passionate long tones, most notably on the saxophonist's "Someplace Called 'Where,'" echoes Shorter's style, and her singing on some of the other pieces gives the group the sound of a two-horn quintet.