Today, Blue Note Records announced Celebration, Volume 1, the first posthumous album by legendary saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter, who passed away last year. The lead single is his rendition of the WarGames theme song, “Edge of the World (End Title).”

Celebration, Volume 1 is a live recording of his 2014 set with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade at the Stockholm Jazz Festival in Sweden. About it, Carolina Shorter wrote in the liner notes:

In the fall of 2022, Rob Griffin started sending a lot of unreleased music for Wayne to sort thru. He started listening around the clock. I’d be doing something around the house, talking on the phone, doing work and he’d yell “Carolina! You’ve got to come and hear this shit! Check out what these guys are doing!” Wayne made detailed notes — some of them are reprinted on this album jacket.

When he heard the Stockholm concert, he said “this is the album!” Then he started listening to more things and, over time, realized that it was going to have to be more than one record. He originally wanted to call the collection Unidentified Flying Objects — thinking of the notes everyone played as being UFOs! In January 2023, when he was hospitalized for the last time, he continued picking tracks and laying out the albums. His “Never Give Up” spirit, which underlines his entire mission, was stronger than ever and he was excited to release more music. It was only in the last 10 days of his life that he realized he was not going to be around to see it to fruition. He started feeling the urgency of celebrating life and decided to change the name of the collection to Celebration. I said “Yes Wayne! Let’s celebrate!!! That’s what it should be called. A celebration!”

Watch the performance of “Edge Of The World (End Title)” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Zero Gravity To The 15th Dimension”
02 “Smilin’ Through”
03 “Zero Gravity To The 11th Dimension”
04 “Zero Gravity To The 12th Dimension”
05 “Zero Gravity – Unbound”
06 “Orbits”
07 “Edge Of The World (End Title)”
08 “Zero Gravity To The 90th Dimension”
09 “Lotus”
10 “She Moves Through The Fair”

Celebration, Volume 1 is out 8/23 on Blue Note Records.