Home » Jazz Articles » Play This! » Kenny Wheeler: Smatter

2

Kenny Wheeler: Smatter

Scott Lichtman By Scott Lichtman

View read count
The song "Smatter," from trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, offers the chance to hear several grandmasters of jazz concoct high-energy music together. For Wheeler's debut on ECM Records, Gnu High (ECM, 1976), he gathered the creative forces of Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland on the album's three tracks. Gnu High would quickly be deemed a classic.

Wheeler displays a tone that is equal parts warm and penetrating. His solos are uber-musical, transcending lyrical lines to create pure ambience. Holland and DeJohnette were one of the earliest rhythm bottom-ends to balance free jazz's use of liberated (cross-chord) phrasing with the confident pulse of classic swing. We get the added treat of hearing Jarrett lend his intense comping and soloing to a trumpet-led quartet format, in one of his final recordings as a sideman.

If anyone should ask you "what s'matter?" then you can enthusiastically point them to this track.


Scott Lichtman FOLLOW Scott Lichtman and get notified whenever a new article published.
Jazz/fusion keyboardist & autograph collector in Stamford CT.


About Kenny Wheeler

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Become a Sustaining Member

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter

Since 1995, All About Jazz has championed jazz as an art form and supported the musicians who create it. Over three decades, it has grown into one of the world's leading jazz resources, serving hundreds of thousands of readers, musicians, presenters and industry professionals each month.

Help Build the Future of All About Jazz

Your support helps us continue building All About Jazz for the next generation—expanding our editorial coverage, preserving jazz history, developing new community features and creating better ways to discover the music and the people behind it.

Become a sustaining member for as little as $20 per year and you'll immediately enjoy an ad-free experience along with access to subscriber features and future articles for a full year.

Together, we're not simply sustaining All About Jazz—we're building its future. Thank you for being part of the journey.

More

Jazz article: Espen Berg Trio: Rue Saint-Michel
Jazz article: A Dave Holland Primer

Popular

Read Steve Coleman on Dave Holland
Musician 2 Musician
Steve Coleman on Dave Holland
Read John Scofield: Meant To Be
Reanimating Conversations Past
John Scofield: Meant To Be
Read Franc Williams: Live From The West End

HIDDEN GEMS

Jazz article: Take Five with Bassist Phil Ravita
Jazz article: Michael Buckley: Blowing Hot
Jazz article: 2015: The Year in Jazz
Year in Review
2015: The Year in Jazz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletters highlight our top stories, top album reviews, website news, free songs, radio & podcast shows, news, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.