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Night Dreamer

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Night Dreamer
Studio album by
Wayne Shorter
ReleasedNovember 1964;
1987
RecordedApril 29, 1964
StudioVan Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
GenreModal jazz, post-bop
Length40:58 original LP
LabelBlue Note
BLP 4173
CDP 7 84173 2
ProducerAlfred Lion
Wayne Shorter chronology
Wayning Moments
(1962) 		Night Dreamer
(1964) 		JuJu
(1965)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
All About Jazz[1]
AllMusic[2]
Tom HullA−[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings[5]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[3]

Night Dreamer is the fourth album by American jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter. It was released in November 1964 by Blue Note Records.[6] With a quintet of trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Elvin Jones performing six Shorter originals.[7]

In 2005, it was reissued as part of the RVG Edition series with liner notes by Nat Hentoff.[8]

Concept and compositions

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At this point of his career, Shorter felt his writing was changing. While the previous compositions had a "lot of detail", this new approach had a simplistic quality to it. "I used to use a lot of chord changes, for instance, but now I can separate the wheat from the chaff."[9]

In an interview with Nat Hentoff, Shorter focused on the album's meaning: "What I'm trying to express here is a sense of judgment approaching - judgment for everything alive from the smallest ant to man. I know that the accepted meaning of "Armageddon" is the last battle between good and evil - whatever it is. But my definition of the judgment to come is a period of total enlightenment in which we will discover what we are and why we're here."

The title song, "Night Dreamer", has mostly a minor-key tonality, which Shorter said "always connotes evening or night to me".[10] It is a 3
4 "floating" piece, yet, "although the beat does float, it also is set in a heavy groove. It's a paradox, in a way, like you'd have in a dream". This explains the "Dreamer" part. Shorter first heard "Oriental Folk Song" as the theme for a commercial, then he discovered it was an old Chinese song. He meant "Virgo" (Shorter's star sign) to be "optimistic", whilst in "Black Nile" he tried to get a flowing feeling, like a "depiction of a river route." "Charcoal Blues" should represent a sort of backtracking piece, linking the past and the present time together: "The old blues and funk were good for their times and place, but what I'm trying to do now is to get the meat out of the old blues while also presaging the different kind of blues to come. [...] I'm both looking back at the good things in those older blues and also laughing at that part of my background". Shorter underlines that the laughter is not mocking but satirical, "from the inside". Ultimately, "Armageddon" was considered by Shorter as the focal point of the album.[11]

Track listing

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Original release (1964)

All compositions by Wayne Shorter.
A1. "Night Dreamer"
A2. "Oriental Folk Song"
A3. "Virgo"
B1. "Black Nile"
B2. "Charcoal Blues"
B3. "Armageddon"

CD release (1987)

  1. "Night Dreamer" – 7:15
  2. "Oriental Folk Song" – 6:50
  3. "Virgo" – 7:05
  4. "Virgo" [alternate take] – 7:00
  5. "Black Nile" – 6:25
  6. "Charcoal Blues" – 6:50
  7. "Armageddon" – 6:20

Remastered CD release (2005)

  1. "Night Dreamer" – 7:15
  2. "Oriental Folk Song" – 6:51
  3. "Virgo" – 7:07
  4. "Black Nile" – 6:28
  5. "Charcoal Blues" – 6:54
  6. "Armageddon" – 6:23
  7. "Virgo" [alternate take] – 7:03

Personnel

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Musicians

Production

References

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  1. ^ Wayne Shorter - Night Dreamer (1964) album review by John Kelman at All About Jazz. March 22, 2005
  2. ^ Wayne Shorter - Night Dreamer (1964) album review by Scott Yanow, credits & releases at AllMusic
  3. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 180. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  4. ^ "Tom Hull: Grade List: Wayne Shorter". Tom Hull. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  5. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1295. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  6. ^ "(none)". Schwann Monthly Guide to Stereo Records. Vol. 19, no. 10–12. p. 277.
  7. ^ AMG.com review
  8. ^ Night Dreamer Product Notes
  9. ^ Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff
  10. ^ Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff
  11. ^ Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff
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