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Kenny Wheeler: Songs for Quintet
by Alberto Bazzurro
A pochi mesi dalla sua morte (18 settembre 2014), ecco l'ultima fatica discografica di Kenny Wheeler per l'etichetta di Manfred Eicher (il quale produce il CD, inciso agli Abbey Road Studios nel dicembre 2013, in coppia con Steve Lake) che ne ha accompagnato molte delle tappe discografiche più salienti. I brani recano tutti la firma del trombettista (in realtà qui esclusivamente flicornista, come gli capitava regolarmente, negli ultimi anni) e, con essa, le stimmate della sua poetica, ...
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by Robert Bush
Recorded less than a year before his death, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler's swan song is a document that sings with smoldering beauty and palpable heartache--all captured in the typically sublime detail that has become the trademark of the ECM label. Wheeler concentrates on flugelhorn throughout, and his long-time association with saxophonist Stan Sulzmann pays big dividends, as the horns orbit each other on the opening “Seventy-Six," where the leader's burnished, centered tone remains one of the most ...
Continue ReadingKenny Wheeler: Songs for Quintet
by Glenn Astarita
Songs for Quintet marks celebrated Kenny Wheeler's final recording. He passed away on Sept 18, 2014. And while it's quite apparent that a lengthy illness zapped some of the trumpeter/flugelhornist's strength, his hallmark musical persona remained intact. Wheeler's yearning notes, distinctive phrasings and enchanting lyricism are resident throughout this production. In the '70s, Wheeler was a catalyst that helped define ECM Records new wave, forward-looking vision and audio aesthetic, complemented by the label's fine art- based album covers. ...
Continue ReadingKenny Wheeler: Songs for Quintet
by John Kelman
With the passing of Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler--Kenny Wheeler to his legion of friends and fans--the world lost yet another significant figure in the history of jazz from the mid-'60s through to the second decade of the new millennium, the artist that Norma Winstone (more often than not his singer of choice) called “the Duke Ellington of our times." While Wheeler had, since 2004, been releasing his music on the Italian Cam Jazz label, but it seems wholly appropriate that ...
Continue ReadingKenny Wheeler: Songs for Quintet
by Ian Patterson
In the end, time--as is its wont--caught up with Kenny Wheeler, the much-loved Canadian-born trumpeter/flugelhornist and composer who made England his home for over sixty years. Happily, he was able to hear the results of the two-day Abbey Road sessions that produced, Songs for Quintet before he passed away last September 18. These Wheeler originals reveal the inevitable fragility that had crept into Wheeler's delivery--even since the remarkable Mirrors (Edition Records, 2013)--due to declining health but just as clearly emphasize ...
Continue ReadingKenny Wheeler: Six for Six
by Mario Calvitti
L'ultimo lavoro del grande musicista anglo-canadese Kenny Wheeler pubblicato dalla Cam Jazz in realtà non è il più recente, essendo stato registrato nel 2008. Ben prima dunque di The Long Waiting, realizzato qualche anno dopo con l'ausilio di una big band, con il quale condivide molti dei temi e dei musicisti impiegati. Il sestetto impiegato è abbastanza inconsueto per Wheeler, più avvezzo a suonare in quartetto o quintetto, in quanto i pochi album realizzati con questo formato, come Around 6 ...
Continue ReadingKenny Wheeler: Six for Six
by John Kelman
When artists move into their eighties, every new album is a gift. It's difficult enough for any octogenarian musician to maintain his/her game, but especially horn players, for whom embouchure and breath are so essential to tone and reach. Six for Six is, however, a curious gift from expat Canadian trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, who's made Britain his home since the mid-'50s. Recorded in 2008, it's his first sextet recording since 2003's Dream Sequence--and even that album only featured one piece ...
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