+ The Wallace Roney Orchestra, performing Wayne Shorter’s “Universe”, “Twin Dragon” and “Legend” (never released music written for Miles Davis) + The Wallace Roney Orchestra, performing Wayne Shorter’s “Universe”, “Twin Dragon” and “Legend” (never released music written for Miles Davis)

Wayne Shorter is certainly one of the most important composers in the history of this music and arguably the greatest living composer in Jazz today. In what must be one of the grandest musical gestures imaginable, Wayne bestowed on to Wallace Roney the scores to two large scale, large ensemble pieces that Wayne conceived and composed for Miles when he was still in the band but were never recorded (or even performed) and told Wallace he was now the person who could best fully realize these works. These two major works, Legend (composed in 1967) and Universe (composed in 1968 and 69) are amazing in their scope and breadth (they are written for as many as 18 pieces, including english horn, bassoon, french horn, flutes and clarinet along with more traditional instrumentation) and show Wayne to already be a fully formed masterful composer and orchestrator of large scale works at this early date in his career. These compositions represent a major discovery in the canon of one of the greatest composers in the history of jazz and it’s is a fitting tribute to Mr. Shorter to debut these important, historical works in celebration of his 80th Birthday in 2013.
 
Wayne also included a third unrecorded composition, Twin Dragon which was written for Miles in 1981 at his request as he was looking for material to perform for his comeback. Wallace Roney, who has performed and recorded with Wayne and was Miles Davis’ only protege, being mentored by him when he was playing in Tony Williams’ band, has become a pivotal artist on the scene in his own right. With his vast experience with these great artists, he is clearly the right choice to bring this important music to life.

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