Sorcerer

About

Named for Herbie Hancock’s composition “The Sorcerer” (which appeared later in trio form on the pianist’s 1968 masterpiece, <i>Speak Like a Child</i>), <i>Sorcerer</i> was trumpeter Miles Davis’ third studio outing with the band famously known as the second quintet. Featuring Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on ba, and Tony Williams on drum, the second quintet is widely recognized as one of the greatest band lineups in jazz or any other genre for that matter. <i>Sorcerer</i>, made in the spring of 1967, is thus essential by definition. It finds the band in peak acoustic form, just a month or two before recording <i>Nefertiti</i>, almost exactly a year before the quasi-electric transition of <i>Miles in the Sky</i>. A hallmark of the second quintet was that everyone wrote for the band. While the title track of <i>Sorcerer</i> is Hancock’, and “Pee Wee,” one of the essential modern jazz ballad, is by William, there are no fewer than four tunes by Shorter (and none at all by Davi, in fact). There’s the leadoff track, “Prince of Darkness” (a moniker for Davis), followed by the regal and mysterious “Masqualero,” a staple of Davis’ repertoire even after Shorter departed the group—a piece Shorter revived when he formed his great late-career quartet early in the ’00. “Limbo” and “Vonetta” round out the picture of Shorter’s compositional geniu, serving as ideal vehicles for a group steeped in a singular brand of improvisation: flowing and fierce, free yet structured, ignited by the leader’s evocative horn. .

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