Saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter has not only left his footprints on our musical terrain, he has created a body of work that is a monument to artistic imagination. Throughout Shorter's extraordinary fifty-year career, his compositions have helped define the sounds of each distinct era in the history of jazz.

Filled with musical analysis by Mercer, enlivened by Shorter's vivid recollections, and enriched by more than seventy-five original interviews with his friends and associates, this book is at once an invaluable history of music from bebop to pop, an intimate and moving biography, and a story of a man's struggle toward the full realization of his gifts and of himself.

Michelle Mercer is a writer and a music commentator for National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, and Down Beat.

Imprint: Tarcher
Distributor: Penguin Group USA, Inc
Publication Date: 03-01-2007
Pages: 336
Measurements: 8.98in X 6.02in X 0.93in X 0.90lb