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American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, considered a “jazz titan”, died today at the age of 89 in Los Angeles, California, revealed the American press.

Citing his agent, The New York Times writes of Wayne Shorter, “the enigmatic and intrepid saxophonist who shaped the contours of modern jazz”, died in a hospital, the cause of which was not revealed.

With a career spanning over 50 years, Wayne Shorter leaves “an incalculable influence” as a saxophonist and a legacy that marks the history of jazz, wrote the New York Times.

Wayne Shorter started playing at age 16, after having seen in Newark, where he was born, a performance that brought together names like Lester Young, Stan Kenton, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Russell Jacquet.

As a teenager, he formed The Jazz Informers and immersed himself in the jazz scene in both Newark and Manhattan, when he entered New York University, says the biography on the All About Jazz portal.

In the late 1950s, Wayne Shorter began playing with John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins and later joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, with whom he played until the mid-1960s.

In 1964, he was invited by Miles Davis to tour, along with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Ron Carter, in a historic quintet that lasted several years.

Alongside the Jazz Messengers and the Miles Davis quintet, Wayne Shorter was also part of a project considered central to his career, the fusion group Weather Report, with keyboardist and composer Joe Zawinul.

The New York Times underlines that, along with the “legion of fans” he conquered in jazz, Wayne Shorter “forged a connection with popular music”, for having collaborated, for example, with Joni Mitchell and Carlos Santana.

His most recent record, the triple album “Emanon” (2018), which included a comic strip, was a “scientific fiction dystopia” that the saxophonist co-wrote with Monica Sly, designed by Randy DuBurke.

Wayne Shorter performed several times in Portugal, namely at the Coliseu de Lisboa in 1991, at Estoril Jazz in 2003, at Guimarães Jazz in 2006, at Casa da Música, Porto, in 2009, and at the Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), in 2014.