With the 1959 Introducing Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter came out of left field with an already mature vision of the saxophone and modern harmony. While the liquid cherry centre of Shorter's tenor sound itself was still in its formative stages, the distinctive harmonic outlines of his writing ("Pug Nose") and the elliptical rhythmic/melodic thrust of his lines ("Black Diamond") were already quite assured and engaging. He's here in the fast company of fellow Jazz Messenger Lee Morgan and what was then the take-no-prisoners rhythm section of the Miles Davis Quintet: Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb. Despite a clear connection to Coltrane, no one ever seems to pick up on the influence of Lester Young, as seems plainly evident in both the theme and variations to "Blue à la Carte" (whose melodic contours bear a more than passing resemblance to his Jazz Messengers masterpiece, "Lester Left Town"). The tenor saxophonist's laid-back demeanour, imaginative use of space, long, twisting melodic lines, and proclivity for impressionistic voicings and altered chords mark him as a Lestorian thinker, if not an acolyte. --Chip Stern