Wayne Shorter: Footprints: The Life And Music Of Wayne Shorter

Footprints: The Life And Music Of Wayne Shorter attempts to boil Shorter's accomplishments down to two discs, but it works better as an appetizer than a full meal. The first disc provides a nice summary of Shorter's progress from Art Blakey sideman to solo artist to Davis's orbit to co-leader of the fusion act Weather Report. Disc two gets mired in '70s and '80s lite-jazz muck before coming out at the other end with some backward-looking but pleasing recent recordings. Jazz is notoriously difficult to anthologize—hence the dominance of multi-disc behemoths—and slim collections like this often feel rushed when they try to capture the scope of a full career. But if anyone deserves the spotlight time, even if he never asked for it, Shorter is it.