He played his first professional gigs with a local bebop big band called the Jackie Bland Band (other members included his brother Wayne, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, and pianist Walter Davis, Jr.).
He was very much a bebop player in his early years, but soon gravitated towards free jazz, and with the exception of six months he spent in a US Army Band, continued to play in that style for the rest of his career.
His style of free jazz sometimes proved to be too far-out for European audiences (his brother remembered that Shorter's gigs in Europe would often end with him responding to the crowd's boos by yelling, "You're not ready for me yet!
Eventually, he returned to the United States, where he taught briefly at Bennington College but otherwise faded into obscurity.
With Marion Brown With The New York Art Quartet With Archie Shepp With Wayne Shorter With Alan Silva With François Tusques