Kenny Wheeler

This quartet session features the compositions of bassist Paolino Dalla Porta and pianist Stefano Battaglia, along with Kenny Wheeler's trumpet and flugelhorn solos and drummer Bill Elgart's rhythmic support. While Porta has solid technique and excellent tone, and Battaglia offers a reasonable approximation of Keith Jarrett's playing style, this date doesn't quite manage to inspire. That's mostly due to Wheeler, whose playing wavers and occasionally falters. His flugelhorn solos are more mellow, better executed and successful, but as the principal soloist outside the rhythm section, he's not always up to the task on this date.

Kenny Wheeler - Gnu High (1976) {ECM 1069}
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© 1976 ECM Records | ECM 1069
Jazz / Post Bop / Flugelhorn

When Kenny Wheeler expatriated from his native Canada to England, it was not headline news. But upon the release of Gnu High, he became a contemporary jazz figure to be recognized, revered and admired. Playing the flugelhorn exclusively for this, his ECM label debut, Wheeler's mellifluous tones and wealth of ideas came to full fruition. Whether chosen in collaboration with label boss Manfred Eicher or by Wheeler alone, picking pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette was a stroke of genius. They support the elongated and extended notions of Wheeler's in many real and important ways.

Kenny Wheeler has long been a talented composer, improviser, and soloist, though he is still overlooked by some jazz fans because most of his work has been issued by European labels. Among the composers of his generation, Wheeler is one of the best, along with the late Bob Brookmeyer, in writing and scoring creative works for a large ensemble. For this session, Wheeler's charts are performed by a 17-piece big band – with the addition of Diana Torto's wordless vocals – conducted by Pete Churchill.

Tenor saxophonist George Adams' third recording as a leader (following two obscure releases for the Italian Horo label) is a little unusual in that the extroverted soloist is heard on the usually introverted ECM label. Adams is teamed with fellow tenor Heinz Sauer (who has a cooler sound), trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, pianist Richard Beirach, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette for five group originals. The playing is advanced but not as fiery as most of Adams' later sets.

Azimuth, the trio of pianist John Taylor, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and singer Norma Winstone, already sounded like a fully-fledged ensemble when this, the group’s first album was released in 1977. Expanding and roaming beyond the spectrum the vocal jazz genre was usually limited to, Azimuth proved of a progressive spirit from the start. Upon the debut’s release, Melody Maker remarked that “this album may (…) be the first sign of [John Taylor’s] evolution into a genuinely important composer: behind its graceful flowing beauty lies a spirit of inquiry which will surely lead further.”