Kenny Wheeler

“Songs for Quintet”

(ECM 2388, Catalogue number 470 4653 )

I’m writing this on January 14th 2015. Today would have been Kenny Wheeler’s eighty fifth birthday. The much loved and missed trumpeter, composer and educator was born in Toronto, Canada but moved to the UK in 1952 where he quickly established himself as a vital member of the British jazz community, primarily through his long association with the late Sir John Dankworth.

A prolific composer Wheeler also led his own groups and was always ready to embrace new developments in the music as he became even more of a cornerstone of contemporary British jazz during the 1960s and 70s, his adventurous nature prompting forays into the worlds of both free jazz and fusion.

As one of a handful of British based jazz musicians of those times to earn an international reputation Wheeler enjoyed a long association with the Munich based ECM label (he was recommended to label boss Manfred Eicher by none other than Chick Corea) for whom he recorded a series of fine albums featuring both small groups and large ensembles, many of which are regarded as modern classics. His ECM catalogue is too numerous to list here and no doubt readers will have their own personal favourites.

Wheeler’s ECM career saw him collaborating with many leading American and European musicians but he still remained a key figure on the British scene and some of his most significant musical associations were with fellow Brits including pianist John Taylor, vocalist Norma Winstone and bassist Dave Holland (despite Wheeler’s Canadian origins I still tend to regard him as being quintessentially British). 

I first heard Wheeler’s playing in 1977 when he guested on rock drummer Bill Bruford’s début solo album “Feels Good To Me”. The purity of Wheeler’s velvet toned flugel horn led me to investigate his early ECM classics “Gnu High” and “Deer Wan” and resulted in a lifelong admiration for his playing and writing. I was lucky enough to see him perform live on several occasions, most recently with his Big Band in November 2012 at the EFG London Jazz Festival. Wheeler was clearly very frail and had to be helped on to the stage but even though he found walking difficult his playing was as sublime as ever and he and his band received a heart warming welcome from the festival crowd.

“Songs for Quintet” was recorded in December 2013 at London’s famous Abbey Road Studios and was to be Wheeler’s final recording session. I suspect that by this time he was too frail to travel to ECM’s favoured studios in Germany, Norway or Italy. He died on September 18th 2014.

It is wholly apposite that Wheeler’s final album should appear on his long term home of ECM, renewing an association that had lasted from the mid 1970s to the late 1990s. It is fitting too that his last record should feature a wholly British quintet including two long term collaborators in tenor saxophonist Stan Sulzmann and bassist Chris Laurence, both of whom have been associated with Wheeler since the late 1960s. Guitarist John Parricelli and drummer Martin France, who both came to prominence with Loose Tubes, complete a group that very much represents the cream of British jazz. All four sidemen had been part of the Wheeler Big Band that gave that memorable performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2012.

The music on “Songs for Quintet” comprises of nine Wheeler compositions, many of them of recent vintage, evidence that right up until the end his creative spark remained undimmed. There are return visits to two or three old favourites from the back catalogue but this is a wholly contemporary sounding recording that very much belies the age of its chief protagonist.
Co-produced by Manfred Eicher and Steve Lake the clarity and spaciousness of the sound is archetypal ECM and ensures that everybody sounds at their best. Wheeler plays flugel horn throughout, I understand that the instrument is physically less demanding than the trumpet, but despite his obvious frailties he still sounds absolutely terrific.

The album begins with “Seventy-Six”, introduced by the bell like sounds of Parricelli’s guitar.
He, too, plays like an angel throughout, his measured contributions the perfect foil for Wheeler’s feathery flugel horn and Sulzmann’s more robust tenor. Wheeler takes the first solo, a pithy statement that reveals that he has lost none of his lyrical fluency. The admirable Parricelli follows, probing delicately above Laurence’s rich bass undertow and France’s brushed cymbal splashes. Sulzmann introduces himself on the tune’s final choruses on a concise group performance that highlights the delicate strengths of this exceptional quintet.

“Jigsaw” is an older item, a composition that Sulzmann chose as the title track for his 2004 Basho Records release of the same name. Appropriately the saxophonist features more prominently here, dovetailing delightfully with Wheeler before the pair embark on their individual solos, the leader going first. Parricelli and the excellent Laurence also feature prominently as soloists on the album’s lengthiest track.

Both “The Long Waiting” and “Canter No. 1” were part of the suite, “The Long Waiting”, written by Wheeler to celebrate his 80th birthday. The subsequent Big Band recording was issued by the Italian Cam Jazz label in 2012. Although originally composed for large ensemble both compositions work well as small group pieces.

“The Long Waiting” is introduced by the glacial tones of Parricelli’s guitar which contrasts well with the rounded warmth of Wheeler’s velvety flugel. The guitarist’s tone softens on his solo and Sulzmann also features, soloing pithily before linking up again with Wheeler. The leader delivers the melancholy coda but an air of vulnerability attaches itself to all three soloists. The sparse bass and brushed drum accompaniment is the epitome of good taste.
 
The unaccompanied bass of the excellent Lawrence introduces “Canter No. 1”, an altogether livelier piece with buoyant rhythms that frames solos from both Wheeler and Sulzmann. Wheeler is understandably a little hesitant but Sulzmann’s solo over an accelerating rhythm is positively joyous. 

The tango “Sly Eyes” has been much covered by other artists but Wheeler’s own version is a delight, the quirky tune propelled by France’s military style drums. There’s a certain playfulness about the solos by Wheeler and Sulzmann although that indefinable sense of melancholy that inhabits so much of Wheeler’s work is never far way. Laurence’s bass is also featured, he’s a masterful soloist, melodic, resonant, fluent, dexterous and all the other qualities that go towards the making of a world class jazz bassist.

“1076” is a brief foray into a seemingly less structured music full of flugel, saxophone and guitar fanfares complemented by France’s ever evolving drum commentary. I suspect that in truth the performance was actually rigorously controlled.

Dating back to 1994 “Old Times” originally appeared in another guise as “How It Was Then”, a song with lyrics by Norma Winstone that served as the title track of the final album by Azimuth, the trio of Wheeler, Winstone and pianist John Taylor. This instrumental version is one of this album’s jauntier offerings with Sulzmann’s tenor helping to bring an air of bluesiness to the proceedings. He shares the solos with Wheeler and Laurence as France’s vibrant drumming keeps things moving along nicely.

Wheeler has always had a penchant for writing in waltz time and the self explanatory ” A Pretty Liddle Waltz” does exactly what it says on the tin and more. The pretty theme frames a pithy call and response exchange between Wheeler and Sulzmann before the openness of the tune allows both soloists to stretch out in unhurried, meditative fashion, the saxophonist going first. Parricelli’s gentle guitar ruminations follow, his tone again stunningly pure. The piece ends with another delightful series of exchanges between those two old friends Wheeler and Sulzmann.   

The closing “Nonetheless” originally appeared on Wheeler’s acclaimed 1996 ECM release “Angel Song”, a recording that featured him alongside a “dream team” of alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Dave Holland. It’s an album that surely rates as being among many people’s favourites.
This 21st century version is also a delight and features further sublime exchanges between Wheeler and Sulzmann, some of Wheeler’s most assured soloing of the set and a gently sparkling contribution from Parricelli. Sulzmann is a musician who just seems to get better with age and his solo is typically divine.

“Songs for Quintet” is a perfectly calibrated small group recording that features a set of supremely crafted compositions superbly played a well balanced and highly interactive band. It’s all wrapped up in ECM’s trademark aural fairy dust and the entire package, including two informative and beautifully illustrated brochures, is a worthy memorial to one of the greatest jazz talents the British Commonwealth has ever produced.

Released to coincide with his birthday Kenny Wheeler’s swansong is a landmark recording and one that gets the jazz year of 2015 off to a terrific start.   
         

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