WAYNE SHORTER RELEASE OF "EMANON" NEW TRIPLE ALBUM ACCOMPANIED BY A GRAPHIC NOVEL

Jazz legend and 10-time GRAMMY winner Wayne Shorter is set for the August 24 release of his long-awaited project Emanon, his first release since 2013’s Without A Net, which marked Shorter’s momentous return to Blue Note Records where he began his heralded recording career in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1959. Emanon is an extraordinary musical and visual experience that presents a triple album of original music by Shorter performed by The Wayne Shorter Quartet—featuring Shorter on soprano and tenor saxophone with Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass, and Brian Blade on drums—with and without the 34-piece Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The music is accompanied by a graphic novel penned by Shorter with Monica Sly and illustrated by Randy DuBurke. Emanon is a physical-only release that will be available in two versions; a Standard Edition that packages 3x CDs with the graphic novel, and a Deluxe Edition that packages 3x 180g vinyl LPs and 3x CDs with the graphic novel enclosed in a beautiful hardcover slipcase. 

DISC 1

The Wayne Shorter Quartet With Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

1. Pegasus

2. Prometheus Unbound

3. Lotus

4. The Three Marias

DISC 2

The Wayne Shorter Quartet Live In London

1. The Three Marias

2. Lost And Orbits Medley

DISC 3

The Wayne Shorter Quartet Live In London

1. Lotus

2. She Moves Through The Fair

3. Adventures Aboard The Golden Mean

4. Prometheus Unbound

In February 2013 upon the release of Without A Net, The Wayne Shorter Quartet performed four of Shorter’s compositions with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Shorter immediately brought the quartet and orchestra into the studio to record those same four pieces: “Pegasus,” “Prometheus Unbound,” “Lotus,” and “The Three Marias.”

“Just before Miles [Davis] passed,” Shorter remembers, “He said, ‘Wayne, I want you to write something for me with strings and an orchestra, but make sure you put a window in so I can get out of there.’ He definitely did not say, ‘Make the strings swing.’ Working with an orchestra is like crossing the street and talking to a neighbor you haven't talked to for 10 years. It's the thing the world needs now: joining forces.”

The title of this four-composition orchestral suite is also Shorter’s title character for the graphic novel: Emanon, or “no name” spelled backward. “When Dizzy Gillespie had a piece of music in the late 40s called ‘Emanon,’ it hit me way back then as a teenager: ‘No name’ means a whole lot. The connection with Emanon and artists and other heroes is the quest to find originality, which is probably the closest thing you can get to creation,” Shorter says. “Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and some comic heroes, they lose their power or identity and become something called human, so that a human being has to do the same thing that Superman and all of them do.”

Later, Blue Note president Don Was introduced Shorter, who is an avid comic book aficionado, to DuBurke’s illustrations, and the saxophonist became enamored with the Brooklyn-raised, Switzerland-based artist’s work in graphic novels on Malcolm X and Deadwood Dick. “I could sort of project myself into Randy’s general state of mind from childhood,” Shorter says. “I could see it in his drawings. He has those ‘I wish’ lines in his work; he’s aiming for how he wants the world to be.”

After DuBurke enthusiastically joined the project and had a long talk with Shorter about the composition titles, quantum mechanics, and much else, he got to work using those four pieces as inspiration. “I’d put the Emanon cuts on,” DuBurke says. “Or I’d watch Cosmos videos with Neil de Grasse Tyson. Whatever came into my head as I sat at the drawing board, I sketched in black and white or in color. Wayne said, ‘Nobody’s gonna edit you, just go with it.’ So I felt entirely free creatively, and delivered some first story sketches to Wayne.”

With DuBurke’s panels in hand, Sly, a screenwriter who helped Shorter and Herbie Hancock write their viral 2016 “Open Letter to the Next Generation of Artists,” worked with Shorter to develop and structure the graphic novel. Central to the story was the multiverse theory, or the idea that the universe we inhabit is one of an infinite number that all exist in parallel realities. Listening to each of four orchestral tracks, Sly and Shorter “came up with a fear that matched the vibe of the track,” Sly says. “That ‘fear’ then defined the world Emanon would be inhabiting in that specific universe of the story. And each of the four universes exists simultaneously—from what I know, that’s very in line with the improvisational, everything-exists-in-the-moment aspect of jazz.”

“Emanon is like so many characters in that role of trying to find a way in the world, and also make the world around him a better place,” DuBurke says. Longtime fans of Shorter may read something of the musician himself into the character. “Wayne is fearless in the face of adversity,” Sly says. “Excited by the prospect of the unknown. Brave enough to stand up for justice and stand out in a crowd, yet sensitive and aware of the value of each life around him.”

“Wayne is the great American composer,” Patitucci says. “It’s always been a matter of him having the chance to display all that he can do in large musical forms, and also in his other areas of brilliance and imagination like art and storytelling, too. So Emanon is a fulfillment of a lifetime vision.”

With Emanon, Wayne Shorter shares his artistic multiverse. Everyone will create his or her own experience with the novel and music—but be prepared for that experience to involve the unknown. “After reading and listening to Emanon, you might begin to notice alternative realities glimmering beneath the everyday world around you,” Esperanza Spalding writes in her introduction to the novel.

Bobbie Gentry 'The Girl From Chickasaw County - The Complete Capitol Masters' Deluxe Box Set Featuring Remastered Studio Albums And Rarities

In 1967, an enigmatic singer, songwriter and producer named Bobbie Gentry rose out of the Mississippi delta and enchanted audiences around the world with her beautiful, captivating voice and her "Ode To Billie Joe." An unconventional, beguiling song with simple acoustic guitar and sparse production, and notably without a discernible chorus, the song introduced Gentry and her style of storytelling that was very different to the confessional song writing of other emerging female singers. The song caused a lot of commotion as it shot to number one in America and knocked The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" off the top spot. When the album Ode To Billie Joe was released the following month, it topped the charts and was the only record to displace Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from its 15-week reign. Over the next several years, Gentry, whose birthday was this past Friday, July 27, released seven studio albums and broke ground in numerous ways as one of the first female musicians to write, produce and even publish her own music. She also produced her elaborate stage shows via her own production company and was the first female singer songwriter to be afforded her own BBC TV series in the UK where she was wildly popular. She became one of the most iconic and influential artists of the 1960s and 70s, and then in the early '80s she made her final appearance and disappeared from the public eye completely, never to return.

Capitol/UMe are proud to announce that on September 21, they will release the first major retrospective of this most groundbreaking artist with The Girl From Chickasaw County – The Complete Capitol Masters, an eight CD box set that includes all seven of Gentry's studio albums sensitively remastered from the original tapes, supplemented by over 75 previously unreleased recordings including her 'lost' jazz album, outtakes, demos, rarities and an eighth disc of live performances taken from her celebrated series for the BBC. The release has specially commissioned cover art by David Downton and includes an 84-page book with a comprehensive essay by boxset compiler Andrew Batt, rare and unseen photos, eight postcards and a facsimile of her original handwritten lyrics for "Ode To Billie Joe." 

  

Gentry's seven albums for Capitol Records featured some exceptional material. She was an artist who could turn her hand to fit country, folk, soul, pop, Americana, blues and jazz, and this box set brings all the magic together. Pick outs include the classic originals of "Ode To Billie Joe," swamp funk mover "Mississippi Delta" (complete with an alternative version), classy Glen Campbell duet "Mornin' Glory," her definitive cover of "Hushabye Mountain," pop-soul triumph "Fancy," and from her final album, the melancholy "Lookin' In."

In addition, there are superb previously unreleased recordings including originals like "I Didn't Know" and "Joanne" alongside essential covers of "Conspiracy Of Homer Jones," "God Bless The Child," and "Spinning Wheel." Also included are intimate acoustic performances of "The Seventh Son," "Feelin' Good," "Seasons Come, Seasons Go" and "Belinda." For the rarities and obscurities fan, making their appearance on CD/digital for the first time are "La Siepe," Bobbie's Italian-language entry to the 1968 San Remo song festival, UK number one single "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" sung in Spanish, and a little-known duet with Kelly Gordon; "Love Took My Heart And Mashed That Sucker Flat." Lastly there's disc eight featuring live recordings from her BBC TV series, including an inspired pairing of "Niki-Hoeky with Barefootin'," and dazzling takes of "Refractions," "Ode To Billie Joe," "He Made A Woman Out Of Me," and an extended "Your Number One Fan."

Gentry's career blazed brightly for a few short years, but only now is the full extent of her artistry coming into focus. When we think of empowered female stars we think of Beyoncé, Madonna, or even Dolly Parton, but before all of them there came the girl from Chickasaw County. When she emerged in the late 60's women were just starting to make their mark in the music industry, but female identity was polarized between the light entertainment star and the confessional singer-songwriter. Gentry developed her own unique persona, which was a hybrid of both; part creative songwriter, and part musical theatre performer. A storyteller at heart, Gentry created characters and situations that were often inspired by her Southern childhood, and the media and public alike were fascinated by the contrast between her glamorous appearance and the rural simplicity of her origins. Romanticized over time, these stories have coalesced into a classic version of the American dream; a rags-to-riches story that took Gentry from the Delta backwoods to the world's most glittering stages.

Her disappearance intrigues us quite as much as what was thrown from the Tallahatchie Bridge: Why did she disappear? What has she been doing? Where is she now? But 'Where is Bobbie Gentry?' is not the question we should be asking: Gentry was a trailblazer who was years ahead of her time; a successful writer, singer, musician, performer, producer, publisher, and businesswoman. What we should really be asking ourselves is 'Who was Bobbie Gentry?' - The Girl From Chickasaw County provides more answers to that question than ever before, definitively re-appraising the musical legacy of this influential and iconic artist.

THE GIRL FROM CHICKASAW COUNTRY – THE COMPLETE CAPITOL MASTERS

DISC 1 – ODE TO BILLIE JOE

1. Mississippi Delta                                                              

2. I Saw an Angel Die                                                                          

3. Chickasaw County Child                                                 

4. Sunday Best                                                                                      

5. Niki Hoeky                                                                                        

6. Papa, Woncha Let Me Go to Town With You?                           

7. Bugs                                                                                                   

8. Hurry, Tuesday Child                                                                      

9. Lazy Willie                                                                                         

10. Ode to Billie Joe                                                                                           

BONUS TRACKS                   

11. The Seventh Son [Demo]*          

12. I Saw an Angel Die [Demo]*                              

13. Niki Hoeky [Demo]*                     

14. Papa, Woncha Let Me Go to Town With You? [Demo]*        

15. Hurry, Tuesday Child [Demo]*                                                   

16. Mississippi Delta [Alternate version]*                                      

17. Sunday Best [Alternate take]*                                                   

18. Show-Off  [Stereo version]*                                      

19. La Siepe [Original 7"]                                                                   

20. La Citta E' Grande [Original 7"]                                                                 

DISC 2 – THE DELTA SWEETE

1. Okolona River Bottom Band                                                          

2. Big Boss Man                                                                                   

3. Reunion                                                                            

4. Parchman Farm                                                                               

5. Mornin' Glory                                                                                  

6. Sermon                                                                                              

7. Tobacco Road                                                                                  

8. Penduli Pendulum                                                                          

9. Jessye' Lisabeth                                                                               

10. Refractions                                                                                    

11. Louisiana Man                                                                                                

12. Courtyard                                                                                      

BONUS TRACKS                                   

13. The Seventh Son [Band version]*                                                              

14. Feelin' Good [Demo]*                                                                 

15. I Didn't Know [Demo]*                                                                

16. Morning to Midnight [Demo]*                                                    

17. Refractions [Demo]*                                                                   

18. Louisiana Man [Demo]*                                                              

19. Sermon [Demo]*                                                           

20. Morning Glory [Demo]*                                                                              

21. Jessye' Lisabeth [Demo]*                                                                           

22. Courtyard [Demo]*                                                                      

23. Louisiana Man ['The Tom Jones Show' 06/07/1968]*           

24. Ode to Billie Joe ['The Tom Jones Show' 06/07/1968]*      

DISC 3 – LOCAL GENTRY   

1. Sweete Peony                                                                                 

2. Casket Vignette                                                                               

3. Come Away Melinda                                                                       

4. The Fool on the Hill                                                                        

5. Papa's Medicine Show                                                                   

6. Ace Insurance Man                                                                         

7. Recollection                                                                                    

8. Sittin' Pretty                                                                                      

9. Eleanor Rigby                                                                                  

10. Peaceful                                                                                         

11. Here, There and Everywhere                                                     

BONUS TRACKS

12. Hushabye Mountain [Original 7"]

13. Skip A Long Sam [Ode to Bobbie Gentry]

14. Conspiracy of Homer Jones*                                                     

15. Sweet Peony [Alternate Version]*                                            

16. Cotton Candy Sandman [Demo]  *                                             

17. Hushabye Mountain [Demo]*                                                   

DISC 4 – BOBBIE GENTRY & GLEN CAMPBELL

1. Less of Me                                                                                    

2. Little Green Apples                                                                   

3. Gentle on My Mind                                                                    

4. Heart to Heart Talk                                                                    

5. My Elusive Dreams                                                                    

6. (It's Only Your) Imagination                                                   

7. Mornin' Glory                                                                                              

8. Terrible Tangled Web                                                                                

9. Sunday Mornin'                                                                          

10. Let It Be Me                                                                               

11. Scarborough Fair/Canticle                                                    

BONUS TRACKS

12. All I Have to Do Is Dream [Original 7"]

13. Walk Right Back [Original 7"]

14. Sunday Mornin' [Alternate version]*

15. Let It Be Me [Without strings]*

16. Scarborough Fair/Canticle [without strings]*

17. Love Took My Heart and Mashed That Sucker Flat [Duet with Kelly Gordon] [Defunked, 1969]

18. Fool on the Hill [Japanese language version] [Original 7"]

19. No me quiero enamorar [Spanish Language 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again'] [Original 7"]

20. En Todas Partes [Spanish Language 'Here There and Everywhere'] [Original 7"]

DISC 5 – TOUCH 'EM WITH LOVE

1. Touch 'Em with Love                                                                 

2. Greyhound Goin' Somewhere                                              

3. Natural to Be Gone                                                                   

4. Seasons Come, Seasons Go                                                   

5. Glory Hallelujah, How They'll Sing                                        

6. I Wouldn't Be Surprised                                                           

7. Son of a Preacher Man                                                                            

8. Where's the Playground, Johnny                                         

9. I'll Never Fall in Love Again                                                     

10. You've Made Me So Very Happy                                                                       

Bonus Tracks                      

11. More Today Than Yesterday*                                                            

12. Spinning Wheel*                                                                      

13. Touch 'Em with Love [Stereo version]*                                          

14. Glory Hallelujah, How They'll Sing [Alternate take]*

15. Seasons Come, Seasons Go [Demo]*                                             

16. Suppertime*                                                                                              

17. God Bless The Child*                                                                              

18. Since I Fell For You*                                                                 

19. Save Your Love For Me*                                                                       

20. Here's That Rainy Day*                                                                         

21. Stormy [Ode To Bobbie Gentry]

22. This Girls In Love With You                                                   

23. Windows of the World [The Best of Bobbie Gentry: The Capitol Years]

DISC 6 - FANCY

1. Fancy                                                                                                                

2. Delta Man                                                                                     

3. Something in the Way He Moves                                        

4. Find 'Em, Fool 'Em and Forget About 'Em                          

5. He Made a Woman Out of Me                                             

6. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head                                   

7. If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody                            

8. Rainmaker                                                                                      

9. Wedding Bell Blues                                                                    

BONUS TRACKS                               

10. In the Ghetto [I'll Never Fall In Love Again (UK)]

11. Fancy [Mono radio edit]*                                                                     

12. Apartment 21 [Original 7"]

13. Away In A Manger [The Christmas Sound of Music, 1969]

14. Scarlett Ribbons [The Christmas Sound of Music, 1969]

15. Circle 'Round the Sun*

16. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head [Alternate take]*

17. Wedding Bell Blues [Alternate take]*

18. Apartment 21 [Without strings]*

19. Scarlett Ribbons [Alternate version]*

20. If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody [Live on 'Top Of The Pops']

DISC 7 - PATCHWORK

1. Benjamin                                                                                       

2. Interlude 1                                                                                     

3. Marigolds and Tangerines                                                      

4. Interlude 2                                                                                    

5. Billy the Kid                                                                                    

6. Interlude 3                                                                                    

7. Beverly                                                                                                            

8. Interlude 4                                                                                    

9. Miss Clara/Azusa Sue                                                               

10. Interlude 5                                                                                   

11. But I Can't Get Back                                                                

12. Jeremiah                                                                                     

13. Interlude 6                                                                                  

14. Belinda                                                                                                         

15. Mean Stepmama Blues                                                                          

16. Your Number One Fan                                                                           

17. Interlude 7                                                                                  

18. Somebody Like Me                                                                 

19. Lookin' In                                                                                     

BONUS TRACKS               

20. Smoke [The Best Of The Capital Years, 2007]

21. Joanne*

22. Salome Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear*

23. Benjamin [Alternate take]*

24. Belinda [Alternate version]*                                                               

25. Smoke (Demo)*

26. The Girl from Cincinnati [Original 7"]

27. You and Me Together [Original 7"]

DISC 8 – LIVE AT THE BBC

1. Mississippi Delta [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 08/03/1968]*                           

2. Papa Won't You Let Me Go To Town With You [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 08/03/1968]*

3. I Saw An Angel Die [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 08/03/1968]*

4. My Dog Sargent [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 08/03/1968]*1.15    

5. Ode to Billie Joe [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 08/03/1968]*            

6. Mornin' Glory [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 07/27/1968]*3.15       

7. Sunday Best [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 07/27/1968]*                   

8. Hurry Tuesday Child [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 07/27/1968]*    

9. Nikki Hokey / Barefootin'  [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 08/10/1968]*

10. Penduli Pendulum [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 08/10/1968]*                    

11. Ace Insurance Man [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 08/10/1968]*   

12. Chickasaw County Child [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 08/10/1968]*          

13. Recollection [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 07/16/1969]*                  

14. Sweet Peony [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 07/16/1969]*               

15. Refractions [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 07/16/1969]*                   

16. Greyhound Goin' Somewhere [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 07/16/1969]*

17. Cotton Candy Sandman [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 07/16/1969]*          

18. Open Your Window [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 02/01/1971]*  

19. Mother Nature's son [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 02/01/1971]*

20. Mr. Bojangles [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 02/01/1971]*                               

21. Your Number One Fan [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 02/01/1971]*            

22. He Made A Woman Out of Me [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 03/08/1971]*            

23. Billy the Kid [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 03/08/1971]*  

24. Wailing Of The Willow [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 03/08/1971]*              

25. Belinda [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 03/08/1971]*                           

26. Circle 'Round The Sun [Live on 'Bobbie Gentry' 03/08/1971]*             

*Previously unreleased