Mondo Jazz

REMEMBERING KENNY

Molti i ricordi dei musicisti sulla figura di Kenny Wheeler. Eccone alcuni tratti dal blog di Peter Hum

Composer and Secret Society bandleader Darcy James Argue, one of many Canadian jazz expats in Brooklyn, has been filling his Facebook posts with his take on Wheeler, videos and more. He wrote:

“Farewell to Kenny Wheeler. A titan. One of the greatest composers and greatest trumpet players to ever walk this earth.

“Musicians are generally considered ‘late bloomers’ if they don’t make a record in their twenties, but KW didn’t release his first album until he was almost 40, and wasn’t really on anyone’s radar until Gnu High, released when he was 46. That record, his first major statement as a leader, completely blew up everyone’s idea of small group playing and writing.

“For endless brilliant melody, KW’s only real peer is Monk. As for harmony, perhaps only Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Bill Evans have been as widely influential.

“Thad Jones took the harmonic vocabulary of the ’60s and made it work for big band. Kenny Wheeler did the same for the ’70s and beyond.

“Gil Evans and Bob Brookmeyer used dissonant intervals like minor 9ths to sound unsettling. Kenny Wheeler made them sound simply gorgeous, as in the heart-stopping chorale that opens the Sweet Time Suite.

“Legendarily introverted and self-effacing, Kenny was never one to sing his own praises, but it would be difficult to overstate what a monumental impact his mu

Pianist Renee Rosnes, another Canadian expat, wrote on Facebook:

“Very saddened to hear that the extraordinary trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler passed on today. I loved his music upon first hearing, and was fortunate to be a student when he was on faculty at the Banff Summer Jazz Workshop many years ago. In January 2010, I traveled to his home in the London suburb of Leytonstone, and spent the afternoon interviewing him for CBC Radio’s Jazz Profiles program. He was very thoughtful and candid with his answers — and extremely humble. What an original thinker. RIP, Sweet Kenny.”

Pianist Fred Hersch wrote on Facebook Thursday night:

“I am very saddened my the passing of master trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler. He had been in very ill health and I heard today from Norma Winstone in London that she saw him last week and knew it would be the last time as he was in very bad shape. He leaves his lovely and adoring wife Doreen behind — they were lovebirds for decades. He was a major influence on me as a composer and as an improviser. Please check out his Music for Large and Small Ensembles on ECM. The prelude is one of the great pieces written by a jazz composer. I was so lucky to play with him and get to know him. He will be missed.”

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Jack DeJohnette, who drummed on Gnu High and Double Double You, wrote:

I would like to comment on the passing of Kenny Wheeler, who I had the great pleasure of playing his music with. Not only a master musician but a truly humble and gentle soul. He touched many with his beautiful sound and compositions. May he rest in peace.

Finally, from Manfred Eicher and Steve Lake at ECM Records, here is word that a final Wheeler recording awaits release:

“Kenny Wheeler 1930-2014

The news of Kenny Wheeler’s death, at the age of 84, reached us just two weeks after we’d finished work on the mixing and mastering of his new album, which was recorded at London’s Abbey Road last Christmas. The session itself was inspirational, a very frail Kenny rousing himself to play creative and touching flugelhorn improvisations in a programme of nine of his fine songs, surrounded and supported by some of his favourite players: Stan Sulzmann on tenor sax, John Parricelli on guitar, Chris Laurence on bass, Martin France on drums. Three of the band were able to join us for the mix of an album which was to have marked a return to ECM for Kenny after some years away. A release date for the album is not yet finalized, but early 2015 seems likely.

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