Kenny Wheeler Quartet with Mark O'Leary

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I performed with Kenny Wheeler Quartet in Triskel at the zenith of the Cork Music Renaissance. I sent a tape to Kenny and he responded with, "Mark, your playing sounds real good, I would like to play with you sometime..." I was astounded, Kenny was my favourite, I loved his playing and I loved his compositions. It was too much. To make matters even more incredible the gig was to be styled; the Kenny Wheeler Quartet, Songs all Wheeler originals with one standard. Full audience, that screamed with euphoria when we finished our encore, it was an ascending pentatonic line, on the very last note, c'est la vie and the audience were ecstatic and just screamed and clapped simultaneously, incredible, I had played at Triskel quite prolifically, including the first free jazz concert by a Cork ensemble, my trio, I had attended concerts there, but had never encountered an audience response like the aforementioned. Kenny wrote to me after and said it was one of the most enjoyable concerts he had played in recent memory and sent me some original scores that he presented just before the concert and retained after. People win awards, I won the gradam award in DCS, it was coveted, but this concert with Kenny Wheeler, was just the apogee of success at that juncture. An Ivor Novello award Mark? No thank you, Kenny Wheeler will suffice, but the Kenny Wheeler Quartet...

Uploaded: 2025-09-07
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