Over the years, the Proper Box series has continued to impress, not least because they provide a valuable introduction to the work of a wide range of artists and genres; each box with between four to five hours of playing time, extensive and informative liner notes, detailed discography, rare photos and all for a very reasonable retail price of around £15. This Shorter set highlights how invaluable a Proper box can be – many jazz fans will be familiar with Wayne Shorter’s work, as much through his association with Miles Davis and his subsequent work with Weather Report as with his own ensembles in more contemporary times, but may not be familiar with this remarkable musician’s early career. This anthology dedicated to his formative years saw Shorter’s talents emerge almost fully-formed from the off, his recording debut on Wynton Kelly’s Kelly Great from 12 August 1959 for the Vee Jay label, of which three of the album’s original five tracks are included, revealing a player of clear potential who had taken account of contemporaneous developments in the form of John Coltrane’s work on Prestige. Vee Jay signed Shorter in his own right in the autumn of that year, and from the subsequent Introducing Wayne Shorter, all six of the original album tracks are included that immediately deliver on his earlier promise as well as revealing his talent for composition with five originals (the album’s sixth track is ‘Mack the Knife’). By now Shorter was a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, well represented by Shorter’s instrumental and compositional contributions, including classics such as ‘When Lester Left Own’, and the less well known, but absorbing ‘Noise in the Attic’, here in a 12-minute live version. Rounding out Shorter’s work on the Vee Jay, Proper include selections from his second album under his own name, Second Genesis, the now famous Young Lions album (that gave its name to a concert at Carnegie Hall on 30 June 1982 featuring up and coming young musicians such as Wynton Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin, Chico Freeman and James Newton that defined the music of that decade), and his third and final album for the label under his own name with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. What emerges is how mature and consistent Shorter’s playing and writing skills were during the period represented by this collection, a period that ended in 1964 when he left Blakey to join Miles Davis, marking the next phase of this underestimated icon’s career.