Celebrating and inspired by Wayne Shorter, musical soulmates Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade have long since performed together as essential members of the Wayne Shorter Quartet. Embracing the message of their mentor and friend (who died March 2), these three virtuosos celebrate his music and introduce compositions with their trio, Children of the Light. Their three-way conversation is an intense collective improvisation — unfolding and constructing the music like a rhythmic and smoldering chamber-music recital.
Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade were three quarters of the extraordinary Wayne Shorter Quartet for more than a decade. Since then, they have continued their individual careers as leaders of their own projects and groups. With their 2015 recording “Children of the Light,” they stepped forward as a trio with an imagination and fearlessness approach that defies the roles and ways of a trio in both obvious and subtle ways. “When I gave Wayne a copy of the recording, I told him: ‘This is for you, Doctor. This is our gift. This is our show of love, care and gratitude for all the lessons’,” Pérez said. “The compositions on this recording represent the idea of ‘going beyond the music.’ That’s what he has taught us: to not think about music just in musical terms but as a tool for the betterment of society. It’s about creating music that brings people together.”
The pieces themselves do not follow conventional song forms, but rather suggest cinematic structures. Narratives do not always unfold linearly. Solos play out more like close-ups in the telling of the story than individual features. “For us, it was like writing the soundtracks of our own lives,” he said. “It was about using music to paint a scene, using the sounds to tell a story.”
Years ago, while they were touring, “It was John [Patitucci] who said, ‘We should call it Children of the Light and bring a little light to the world,’ ” Pérez recalled. “You say ‘thank you’ to a great man like Wayne not by imitating what he does but by playing off the language he created — finding a new language in the process. Like Wayne once said: ‘This is the new sound of the trio. You guys are touching another dimension.’ ”
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