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Kenny Wheeler

His earliest influences included Buck Clayton and Roy Eldrige but, by the time he left for London, he was looking towards bebop, Miles Davis and Fats Navarro particularly.

After his arrival in London, Wheeler balanced commercial dance band work with gigs alongside modernists like Joe Harriott and Ronnie Scott, and in 1959 joined the Johnny Dankworth band in time for their breakthrough Newport Jazz Festival appearance. He consequently came to be one of the major solo voices in the Dankworth orchestra, and during the end of his stay recorded his first album as a leader Windmill Tilter (Fontana), which featured compositions for big band based on Cervantes’ Don Quixote stories.

In 1966, a chance encounter with drummer John Stevens at the Little Theatre Club in London set Wheeler on a new course. To the surprise of many musicians of his generation, the trumpeter became deeply involved in free music and joined both Stevens’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble and the Tony Oxley group. Through saxophonist Evan Parker and guitarist Derek Bailey, Kenny was initiated into the Globe Unity Orchestra, the German-based big band led by the pianist Alexander von Schlippenback. His membership continues - he is prominently featured on the three albums the Globe Unity Orchestra has recorded for JAPO/ECM.

In 1971, Anthony Braxton, impressed by Wheeler’s abilities to play the demanding charts on the session for The Complete Braxton (Freedom), invited him to join his group. Braxton’s music became Wheeler’s priority until 1976, when the difficulties of commuting between London and New York became overwhelming, but in between he found time to record Song For Someone (Incus), a record that juxtaposed free and jazz elements (and which became Melody Maker Album Of The Year in 1975), and Gnu High (ECM 1069) a still very fresh album with Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. Critics agreed that the ECM album marked a new high both for Wheeler and for the label: Quintessential (Stereo Review), Unbeatable (Melody Maker), Supert (Jazz Forum), Miraculous (Time Out) and so on. The same critics, however, have tended to be less vocal in their support for the trio Azimuth (Wheeler, John Taylor and Norma Winstone) whose ECM albums are distinguished by their subtlety and require repeated close listening for full appreciation.

Steve Arguelles: Here

Read "Here" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
November 27, 2023

In che modo ci si approccia ad una registrazione di solo batteria, se sei un batterista che non crede negli assoli di batteria? Su questa domanda le note di copertina argomentano in modo brillante, lucido, esaustivo. Il musicista in questione è Steve Arguelles veterano della più vivace scena britannica, membro fondatore dei fondamentali Loose Tubes e Human Chain, collaboratore di musicisti come Lee Konitz, Kenny Wheeler, Hugh Masekela, Chris McGregor. La registrazione avviene nella chiesa luterana di ...

72 Jazz Thrillers

The Most Exciting Jazz Albums since 1969: 1996-1998

by Robert Middleton
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The albums featured in the fourth installment of 72 Jazz Thrillers are from some of the most famous and accomplished bandleaders in all of jazz. The artists featured here, some with careers of as long as 60 years and half of whom are still living and recording, made albums that prove the timelessness of jazz. From an album of modern pop standards and one of the most revered ECM albums to a gem of Americana, all of these albums have ...

Liner Notes

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by John Kelman
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It's often easy to judge artists based on where they are now, but when you have a recorded legacy as rich as that of Bill Bruford, it's far better to view the body of work as a whole. As divergent as the intrepid percussionist/composer/bandleader's career has been, there are common threads running through all his work, making the earlier, electrified and amplified material on this Winterfold Collection fit contextually as a logical antecedent to his more recent unplugged and improvisation-centric ...

Extended Analysis

A Supreme Love

by Duncan Heining
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Alan Skidmore is one of the finest saxophonists to come out of the United Kingdom, Europe or indeed anywhere. In fact, it was hearing Skidmore's tenor solo on “Have You Heard?" from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966) that encouraged a young Michael Brecker to take up the instrument. Skidmore had also served his apprenticeship with blues singer Alexis Kornerin the sixties and by the end of the decade was equally well-versed in the blues and in the ...

Album Review

Kenny Wheeler: Gnu High

by Chris May
April 21, 2023

Trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Kenny Wheeler's exalted Gnu High, first released in 1976, is one of two albums with which ECM launches its audiophile vinyl reissue series, Luminessence, on April 28, 2023. The Luminessence mission statement is to showcase albums that have “changed perceptions of creative music making." And few would dispute this summation of the first batch of releases (listed below). Some of the albums will be presented in facsimile editions, others--such as Gnu High--in gatefold ...

Album Review

John Taylor Sextet: Fragment

by Chris May
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The not-for-profit Jazz In Britain label is one of the unsung heroes of British jazz. And if it is being sung, apologies, it deserves to be sung louder. While it is fitting that the musicians who make up London's new alternative jazz scene receive a massive shout out, the players who came before them, who paved the way for British jazz's current explosion, tend to get overlooked. Slowly, this is changing, and Jazz In Britain is in ...

Album Review

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Read "Marching Song Volumes 1 & 2 Plus Bonus Tracks" reviewed by Maurizio Comandini

by Maurizio Comandini
June 20, 2022

Mike Westbrook, pianista e soprattutto direttore di orchestra, è nato il 21 marzo del 1936 a High Wycombe, 50 chilometri a nord-ovest di Londra. Dapprima tentato dalla Art School di Plymouth, si dedica poi con decisione alla musica, dalla fine degli anni cinquanta. Nel 1958 forma la sua prima band per la quale gli capita di reclutare il sedicenne John Surman, giovane talento emergente che stava terminando il suo percorso scolastico. Quattro anni dopo Westbrook si sposta a Londra per ...

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