Wayne Shorter has own acclaimed albums and work with supergroup Weather Report, prolific Grammy-winning saxophonist has recorded with Steely Dan and Herbie Hancock.

The legendary, Grammy-winning saxophonist Wayne Shorter who collaborated with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan, and Joni Mitchell, in addition to his own renowned albums and work with jazz supergroup Weather Report, has died at the age of 89.

What was the Saxophonist Wayne Shorter death cause?

Shorter’s rep confirmed to Rolling Stone that the revered musician died Thursday morning, March 2, in Los Angeles. There was no mention of a cause of death. “Visionary composer, saxophonist, visual artist, devout Buddhist, devoted husband, father, and grandfather Wayne Shorter has passed away at age 89.

Departing the earth as we know it and embarking on a new journey as part of his extraordinary life.” his longtime label Blue Note said in a statement Thursday. At the time of his transition, Shorter was surrounded by his loving family in Los Angeles.”

Shorter was one of the most prolific and visible ambassadors of jazz, expanding the boundaries of the art form itself while fusing its influence with all genres of music over an eight-decade career that spanned from his 1959 debut to his 2023 Grammy-winning Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival.

“Wayne Shorter, my best friend, left us with courage in his heart, love and compassion for all, and a seeking spirit for the eternal future,” Herbie Hancock, Shorter’s closest friend and collaborator for more than six decades, said in a statement. He was prepared for rebirth.

Also Read: Jalen Carter, a Georgia star, has been charged with racing in a fatal wreck.

He is irreplaceable, as is every human being, and he was able to reach the pinnacle of excellence as a saxophonist, composer, orchestrator, and, most recently, composer of the masterful opera…Iphigenia. I miss being around him and his unique Wayne-isms, but his spirit lives on in my heart.”

“Maestro Wayne Shorter was our hero, guru, and lovely friend,” Blue Note President Don Was said. “His music possessed a spirit that came from somewhere way, way beyond and made this world a much better place. Similarly, his warmth and wisdom enriched the lives of all who knew him. Fortunately, the work he left behind will live on.”

Shorter, who was born in Newark, New Jersey, began his career with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, performing alongside future jazz greats (and collaborators) such as Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. He made his bandleader debut in 1959, after a half-decade stint with Blakey, with three musicians — bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Jimmy Cobb, and pianist Wynton Kelly — who had just months earlier formed the backbone of Davis’ Kind of Blue.

Shorter, a graduate of an arts high school with a college degree in music education, excelled in both composition and improvisation, two skills he’d later employ when he was recruited to join Davis’s Second Great Quintet.

That lineup, which also included bassist Ron Carter, pianist Herbie Hancock, and drummer Tony Williams, first appeared together on 1965’s E.S.P., and would later support Davis as he explored jazz fusion on albums such as In a Silent Way, Miles in the Sky, Nefertiti (for which Shorter wrote the title track), and Bitches Brew (which included the Shorter composition “Sanctuary”).

Shorter’s time with Davis coincided with some of his greatest successes as a bandleader, most notably Juju in 1965 and Speak No Evil in 1966.

After experimenting with jazz fusion alongside Davis in the late 1960s, Shorter formed Weather Report with keyboardist Joe Zawinul in 1970, further expanding the subgenre’s sound by incorporating funk and world music influences. Weather Report’s most enduring success came after the addition of bassist Jaco Pastorius in 1976, as evidenced by albums such as 1977’s Heavy Weather and 1978’s Mr. Gone (the title a nickname of Shorter’s).

Shorter won 12 Grammy Awards during his career, beginning in 1979 for Weather Report’s 8:30 and most recently at the 2023 Grammys in the Best Improvised Jazz Solo category (“Endangered Species,” from Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival, capturing one of Shorter’s final-ever performances in 2017).

He was an in-demand session musician and a favorite of Mitchell, who enlisted the saxophonist for all 10 studio albums she released between 1977 and 2002, including 1979’s jazz-indebted Mingus. Shorter also played the classic saxophone solo on Dan’s “Aja” and Don Henley’s “The End of Innocence.”

Also Read: Ed Sheeran Says that his wife cherry Seaborn was diagnosed with a tumor while she was pregnant.

Shorter had struggled with health issues in recent years, and dozens of jazz musicians — both collaborators (Hancock, Branford Marsalis) and the generations of artists he inspired, such as Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington, and Terence Blanchard — rallied around him in the form of benefit concerts to help pay his medical bills.

Shorter’s inventive LP Emanon, a three-disc live set complete with a graphic novel co-conceived by the then-85-year-old saxophonist, placed third on Rolling Stone’s 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2018.

Shorter, one of the last living jazz legends of his generation, was among the recipients of the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors, which recognized him as “a genius, a trailblazer, a visionary, and one of the world’s greatest composers.” In addition to the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Shorter received the NEA Jazz Masters Award and the Polar Music Prize in 2015.