The songs features in Footprints span Shorter's nearly 35-year career as a jazz saxophonist and composer. The discs include everything from classic 1960s recordings with Miles Davis, like Nefertiti and Footprints, to later recordings featuring folk singer Joni Mitchell and the jazz-rock band Steely Dan.

Shorter was born in 1933 in Newark, New Jersey, and began recording in the 1960s. He spent five years as one of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and, in 1964, joined Miles Davis's band, which also included Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams. Shorter formed Weather Report with Miroslav Vitous and Joe Zawinul in 1970.

The biography is the first to focus on Shorter, and the first book for its author, Michelle Mercer, a music critic for National Public Radio's All Things Considered.