Kenny Wheeler

Born in Toronto in 1930 but based in England from 1952, Kenny Wheeler was by the late 1960s a highly regarded figure on the London scene, living a sort of double life – as a post-bop trumpeter and flugelhorn player inspired by Clifford Brown and Art Farmer and as a pioneering free player moving into unexplored territory alongside improvisers such as John Stevens, Evan Parker, Dave Holland and Derek Bailey. Jazz tradition and free experimentation would intermingle in Wheeler’s palette as player and composer. As he put it, “the free stuff relaxed my conventional playing and the conventional playing gave shape to my free soloing”, and ideas discovered in improvising, especially a fondness for intervallic leaps, were subsequently deployed in his pieces. He cited Duke Ellington, Gil Evans and Stan Kenton as formative influences on his writing but also listened closely to classical and contemporary composition; Paul Hindemith was another key influence. Melody was the core of his own writing, and he always found new ways to frame it, harmonically and rhythmically. In terms of emotional atmosphere, he found melancholy cheering. “Sad music makes me feel happy”, he said. “My favourite people in jazz are the ones who sound a bit sad. Billie Holiday, Miles Davis.” In 1975 Manfred Eicher invited Wheeler to New York for the recording of Gnu High, a now-legendary session with Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. The album brought Wheeler international press attention and recognition as more than a musicians’ musician. Many other ECM sessions followed: as a leader of his ensembles small and large, as a co-leader with John Taylor and Norma Winstone in Azimuth, as a member of Dave Holland’s Quintet, and as sideman or guest with John Abercrombie, Pierre Favre, Bill Frisell, Arild Andersen, George Adams, Rainer Brüninghaus, Ralph Towner and Leo Smith. He was also heard in the freewheeling contexts of Alexander von Schlippenbach’s Globe Unity and the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra; both of these adventurous big bands included Kenny Wheeler compositions in their respective repertoires.