‘Night Dreamer’: Wayne Shorter’s Blue Note Debut

‘Night Dreamer’: Wayne Shorter’s Blue Note Debut

“I knew that for my first album for Blue Note, I had to say something substantial,” Wayne Shorter confessed to jazz writer Nat Hentoff in 1964. The New Jersey-born tenorist had already shown he was a musician of considerable substance via his role in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, writing some of the band’s most enduring tunes, including “Lester Left Town,” “Ping Pong” and “Children of The Night.” Although he was an indispensable asset to Blakey,…