Atlantis (Wayne Shorter album) explained

Atlantis
Type:studio
Artist:Wayne Shorter
Cover:Atlantis (Wayne Shorter album).jpg
Border:yes
Released:1985
Recorded:1985
Studio:Producers I & II (Los Angeles, California)
Meta Music (Los Angeles, California)
Crystal Sound (Los Angeles, CA)
Genre:Jazz, Latin jazz, jazz fusion, world fusion,
Length:42:21
Label:Columbia
Producer:Wayne Shorter, Joseph Vitarelli
Prev Title:Native Dancer
Prev Year:1975
Next Title:Phantom Navigator
Next Year:1987

Atlantis is the sixteenth album by Wayne Shorter. It was released on the Columbia label in 1985 and was Shorter's first solo album since 1974.

Background

The recording is notable in Shorter's body of work both for its relative lack of improvisation and for the high level of its compositions and group arrangements. Brazilian and funk rhythms are featured on several tracks, as is a mixture of electric and acoustic instrumentation. The composition "Shere Khan, the Tiger" was previously recorded by a group including Shorter and Carlos Santana on the latter's 1980 album The Swing of Delight.

Several of the compositions on this album would continue to feature in Shorter's repertoire well into 2012, most notably the title piece. The cover art for the album is a pastel portrait of Shorter by actor Billy Dee Williams. Compositionally, "Atlantis" is noteworthy due to the inclusion of unusual intervallic melodies and a sense of economy and space generated through the use of parallel dominant 9th suspended chords coupled with contrapuntal bass lines. This approach is exemplified by the composition "On the Eve of Departure" which programmatically resembles "When worlds Collide", the George Pal Sci-Fi classic.

Track listing

All compositions by Wayne Shorter except where noted.

  1. "Endangered Species" (Shorter, Joseph Vitarelli) – 4:47
  2. "The Three Marias" – 5:48
  3. "The Last Silk Hat" – 5:25
  4. "When You Dream" (E. Lee, Shorter) – 4:28
  5. "Who Goes There!" – 5:29
  6. "Atlantis" – 4:34
  7. "Shere Khan, the Tiger" – 2:15
  8. "Criancas" – 3:40
  9. "On the Eve of Departure" – 5:55

Personnel

Musicians

Production

See also