Alan Shorter
Play Radio
Listen to Alan Shorter Radio,
featuring artists like Jimmy Lyons, Alan Silva, Charles Brackeen, Paul Bley Trio and more…
-
Search on Spotify
Yes, it scrobbles! Learn more
6,534 plays (887 listeners)
Alan Shorter (May 29, 1932 - 1987) was a free jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player, and the older brother of composer and saxophone player Wayne Shorter. He was described by one critic as “a marginal but colorful jazz personality.”
Alan was born in the Ironbound District in Newark, New Jersey. He started on alto saxophone, but switched to trumpet after graduating from high school. He attended Howard University but soon rebelled again the ultra-conservative atmosphere and dropped out (he later attended and graduated from New York University (NYU)). He played his first professional gigs with a local bebop big band called the Jackie Bland Band (other members included his brother Wayne, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, and pianist Walter Davis, Jr.). He was very much a bebop player in his early years, but soon gravitated towards free jazz, and with the exception of six months he spent in a US Army Band, continued to play in that style for the rest of his career.
He recorded two albums as a leader: Orgasm (1968) and Tes Esat (1971) (both were out of print for many years until re-issued by Verve Records in 2004 and 2005 respectively). He also recorded five albums with saxophonist Archie Shepp (1965-1970), including the classic, Four for Trane, three albums with Marion Brown (1965-1966), one album with Alan Silva (1970), and made an appearance on one of his brother’s albums (The All Seeing Eye in 1965). Several of these albums feature his unusual compositions, his most famous being “Mephistopheles”.
Alan was born in the Ironbound District in Newark, New Jersey. He started on alto saxophone, but switched to trumpet after graduating from high school. He attended Howard University but soon rebelled again the ultra-conservative atmosphere and dropped out (he later attended and graduated from New York University (NYU)). He played his first professional gigs with a local bebop big band called the Jackie Bland Band (other members included his brother Wayne, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, and pianist Walter Davis, Jr.). He was very much a bebop player in his early years, but soon gravitated towards free jazz, and with the exception of six months he spent in a US Army Band, continued to play in that style for the rest of his career.
He recorded two albums as a leader: Orgasm (1968) and Tes Esat (1971) (both were out of print for many years until re-issued by Verve Records in 2004 and 2005 respectively). He also recorded five albums with saxophonist Archie Shepp (1965-1970), including the classic, Four for Trane, three albums with Marion Brown (1965-1966), one album with Alan Silva (1970), and made an appearance on one of his brother’s albums (The All Seeing Eye in 1965). Several of these albums feature his unusual compositions, his most famous being “Mephistopheles”.
Shouts:
3 shouts
Top Albums
-
Orgasm
Alan Shorter
Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $9.49
- 7digital $9.99
- iTunes $9.99
- Buy Album
- Amazon $49.98
- eBay Search
-
Tes Esat
Alan ShorterBuy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
- 7digital Search
- iTunes Search
- Buy Album
- Amazon $28.99
- eBay Search
Shoutbox
Top Listeners
-
cdufuckyou
Top Listener
-
GirTheRobot
Top Listener
-
alexandros1515
Top Listener
-
GoatedBloat
Top Listener
Recent Activity
-
TheUnchecked, Jigwally, jussijussi and 1 other person added Alan Shorter to their libraries. last month
-
MissNewOrleans tagged Alan Shorter with trumpet, jazz and post-bop. October 2011
-
MissNewOrleans, themutante and T3hLibrarian added Alan Shorter to their libraries. October 2011
-
Rohrkatze created the Russian wiki page for Alan Shorter. August 2011
-
WrathOfTzolkin added Alan Shorter to WrathOfTzolkin’s library. August 2011
-
AenAegir tagged Alan Shorter with jazz, post-bop and free-jazz. June 2011
-
A deleted user connected Alan Shorter to the group Y!A RHH. June 2011
-
Kainyn-Kutho tagged Alan Shorter with free jazz, avant-garde jazz, jazz and one other tag. April 2011
-
A deleted user tagged Alan Shorter with ‘skotj’. March 2011
-
A deleted user connected Alan Shorter to the group Jazz Cats. February 2011
More Information
Email Newsletter
Get exclusive tour, release & promotion updates on Alan Shorter from Universal Music.
