"JuJu" — soundtrack to blowing wind and huffing airplane

Appreciating Wayne Shorter’s Blue Note period



I associate "JuJu" by Wayne Shorter, the version on his 1964 Blue Note album by the same name, with the time I was flying through heavy weather in a prop-driven commuter plane. This experience came at a time when you could use electronic devices at any time during a flight. Back then, the most sophisticated device was a Sony Walkman. It was also at a time when pilots weren’t sealed off from passengers; I could see into the cockpit because there were no doors or partition in this little plane. As it gained altitude after takeoff, I had a pilot’s view through the windshield of the gray horizon flipping back and forth. Out my window, I saw mountains of clouds as the plane tried to climb through them toward a little hole of light. As Shorter announced the theme of "JuJu," the plane powered upward, but by McCoy Tyner’s solo, the blackening clouds seemed to have beaten the airship back downward. Just after Shorter came in again, the the plane made another attempt to break through the little hole of light, but the elements beat it downward once again. Shorter’s tumultuous solo represented not only the plane’s striving but also the atmosphere’s fierce resistance. Before Shorter was done, the plane made another attempt, this time successful, and the song faded out just as we threaded through the little hole of light into the calm air above the clouds.