Yes or No is a jazz composition by Wayne Shorter, first recorded on August 3, 1964, for his Blue Note album JuJu. The recording session featured Shorter on tenor saxophone with McCoy Tyner on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. Written during Shorter's prolific post-Jazz Messengers period, the tune emerged alongside other JuJu compositions like the title track, Deluge, House of Jade, and Mahjong, all of which showcase his evolving approach to harmony and melody during the mid-1960s. This was a period in which Shorter was developing the distinctive compositional voice that blended modal thinking, chromatic approaches, and non-functional harmony with hard bop foundations, an approach that would soon inform his work with Miles Davis's second great quintet. Unlike some of Shorter's deeper catalog pieces, Yes or No has maintained a steady presence in the repertoire of working jazz musicians, with numerous recordings by other artists over the decades, including a version by organist Joey DeFrancesco on his 1996 album All or Nothing at All. The composition exemplifies the kind of original material Shorter was producing at a remarkable pace during his Blue Note years, combining rhythmic vitality with harmonic sophistication in a form that invites extended improvisation.
