Here's the Miles Davis Quintet live in 1967 with Wayne, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams.
Wayne was my favourite living musician (until today). I'm pretty broken up over his passing, but at 89 he had more than a good run. I had the good fortune of seeing him perform on a couple of occasions. He was playing and still creating the highest level of musical art, almost right up to the end; still winning Downbeat reader's polls and Grammy Awards every year well into his late 80s. Wayne was one of the greatest jazz composers of all time, and his creative longevity and the incredible intensity of his live performances surpassed just about anyone else who ever lived. I mean after retiring from playing after a close to 70 year career he decided to write an operatic work that just premiered in 2021, and he's up for another Grammy this year. RIP Wayne.
The classic recordings with Miles from the '60's rank with the greatest music ever conceived of and produced. Period. But his 15 or so years co-leading Weather Report with Joe Zawinul were extremely fertile. That band was utterly unique and incomparable. Here they are ripping the shit out of it live in 1983 with Omar Hakim on drums and Victor Bailey on bass. Just one of their impossibly virtuosic lineups down through the years.
His later acoustic quartet which he led from 2000 on, with Danilo Perez (piano), John Patitucci (Bass), and Brian Blade (drums), was equal to, or greater than anything he did in his younger days.
Here he is performing in 2014 at the age of 80(!):
