Wayne Shorter

Etcetera is a Wayne Shorter quartet session recorded for Blue Note on 14 June 1965 and left in the vault for fifteen years. It finally appeared in 1980 as LT-1056, prepared for release by Michael Cuscuna, and a British edition followed in 1981. It has long been counted among the saxophonist's finest studio albums, and a CD edition followed in 1995.

The date was produced by Alfred Lion at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. Shorter plays tenor with Herbie Hancock on piano, Cecil McBee on bass and Joe Chambers on drums. Hancock and Chambers would be back with Shorter the following year for Adam's Apple.

Four of the five pieces are Shorter's, including the title track, the ballad Penelope and Toy Tune. The only outside composition is Gil Evans's Barracudas (General Assembly). Writing for jazz.com, Ted Gioia found the fifteen-year delay baffling. He counted the title piece among the unconventional Shorter compositions that help define an era. Its brief opening theme mainly launches the group into open exploration. The musicians give each other a lot of room and move around one another through the solos, and everyone solos except McBee.

Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Stacia Proefrock suggested that its low-key character may explain why Blue Note overlooked it. She singled out Indian Song as the gem of the set, with Shorter at his most hypnotic. The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide gave it five stars, and The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings three and a half out of four.

This is the Japanese Ultimate High Quality CD (UHQCD) from Universal Music Japan, catalogue UCCQ-9742, issued in 2024 with a remaster credited to Kevin Gray. It comes in a jewel case with obi, with Cuscuna's original notes and Japanese notes by Masamichi Okazaki.