In conversation with a legendary performer: Wayne Shorter

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      Interviews are tricky. You’ve got to balance the interviewee’s need for privacy with your quest for revelation—and the interview subject’s desire for publicity against your need to not appear overly promotional. Still, when they’re good, they’re one of the great pleasures of a writer’s life. I’ve acquired dear friends—and, frankly, lovers—from interviews; I’ve been given deep insights into the creative process; and I’ve been told secrets that I’m still not at liberty to divulge. (Wait for the memoir…)

      And it’s entirely possible that I once did an interview that saved my life.

      I was not in a good way in 2012. A betrayal, a divorce, depression, and illness had me questioning the point of existence—but, hey, it was jazz-festival season and I still had to pick up the phone and talk to former Miles Davis sideman, Weather Report cofounder, and all-round saxophone colossus Wayne Shorter. And somehow, in my battered state, I found the strength to ask him about how he carried on after the 1996 jet crash that killed his wife and niece.

      “If I’d done anything else, gone crazy or something like that, that’s not paying any homage to the life of my wife,” Shorter told me. “That would have been a slap in the face of her life. So when they passed away, I kept hearing in my head—and I was probably saying it to myself—‘Do the work. Do the work.’ ”

      I’ve since taken that on as my own life’s mantra: “Do the work.” I’m still here, doing the work, and I’m glad I am. Thanks, Wayne.

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