Here's that review from 'The Guardian' of the Wayne Shorter Quartet's concert at last November's London jazz Festival.
Wayne Shorter
4 stars
Royal Festival Hall, London
John Fordham
Guardian
Monday November 12, 2001
Between now and next weekend, you may hear a lot of sax-players at the London Jazz festival hosing down audiences with notes as if their instruments were water-cannon, but not Wayne Shorter. The enigmatic 68-year-old New Jersey saxophonist, co-star of one of the greatest Miles Davis bands and co-founder of Weather Report, was one of the most eagerly awaited festival guests. His hauntingly personal and unfashionably reserved independence as a writer and player make him a school of contemporary music on his own. Shorter was also bringing a formidable younger band in pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Pattitucci and the flamboyant drummer Brian Blade.
After a huge cheer of greeting died down, the American began with soft tenor-sax rushes ending in half-suppressed yelps, the agile Pattitucci shadowing him in the high register. A staccato pulse pitched and tossed by Blade's impulsive patterns was subtly coloured by Shorter's mournful tenor sound, the saxophone far behind the theme's dominant pulse.
Pianist Perez was at his most eloquent, more Herbie Hancockish than usual (but constantly refreshing the older material with a Latin-jazz vivacity, and sustaining a strong group feel). The band was thus ideal for Shorter, as an improviser who selflessly plays off his surroundings rather than bull-charging through them. He is dependent on ensemble sensitivity. The leader devoted the second half to soprano saxophone, on which instrument he has been one of the most affecting of all jazz improvisors. He was spare, fragile and sometimes forlornly hooting against Pattitucci's mellifluous bowed playing, twisting and weaving melodic ideas (the Rollins influence shows in Shorter's fondness for toying with phrase-fragments) over Blade's racing percussion. A master jazz virtuoso and, as importantly, a master participator.
I finally found the video of that concert this morning and watched it immediately. Fantastic stuff!
Anyway, here's a rather different review from Invalid Link Removed Regardless, I'll be buying the album ASAP.
Taped at various venues in 2001, Footprints Live! is momentous (regardless of the music it contains), simply because it stands as Shorter's only "live" recording as a leader, and it marks the first time since 1967 that the saxophonist-composer has made an album under his own name using only acoustic instruments. Here, he's joined by pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade for a grouping of older tunes that are consequently already familiar to the audience. The results are spirited. It's as if one can feel the heat that was generated on the bandstand, throughout the album's eight separate tracks, perhaps nowhere more pointedly than on an extended "Ju Ju," with a particularly urgent Shorter working the upper reaches of his soprano range.
All that (and more) excitement notwithstanding, one comes away from repeated listenings with a sense that something isn't quite right. Unfortunately, what that turns out to be is the cumulative inspiration (or, lack thereof) of the leader's playing. One has only to contrast Shorter's passages in opening pieces "Sanctuary," "Masquelero," and "Valse Triste," -- as unfair as this might conceivably be -- with his mid-'60s output. The "young" Wayne Shorter -- on such albums as Ju Ju or Speak No Evil -- was one of music's most stunning melodicists around with an in-the-moment conception and harmonic/rhythmic vitality that were all but unmatched. More recently, though, his playing has seemingly become less assured, his focus not as sharp, and this cannot be explained away by the cliché that as a player matures, he or she realizes how to cut to the heart of the matter, and that ultimately less is more.
Yet still, while there is admittedly lots of admirable musicmaking here, the bulk of it seems to be generated by the backup trio. All we can do is hope that next time around, Shorter himself rises as fully to the occasion as do his worthy constituents on Footprints Live!
Mike Stern, too. 
