Kenny Wheeler Big Band - The Long Waiting (2012)

Earlier in the year the Royal Academy announced a new Jazz Prize to be awarded to a music graduate demonstrating "excellence in both performance and composition." The name of the prize? It is named after someone befitting such a rare honour: The Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize. An elder statesman of UK jazz (following his move here from his native Canada in 1952), Wheeler s exemplary career continues apace. There are the early records in the groups of Tubby Hayes, Joe Harriott and Ronnie Scott; his membership of two of the key improv bands Spontaneous Music Ensemble and the Globe Unity Orchestra; his jazz-rock phase with Bill Bruford, Mike Gibbs and as a member of the United Jazz and Rock ensemble; His Azimuth trio with John Taylor and Norma Winstone, which formed a part of his long association with the ECM label from the seventies on; and a number of other groups large and small, leading to his recent spate of high calibre recordings for the CAM Jazz label. Now CAM Jazz release a new big band album of eight Wheeler compositions, to coincide with the trumpeter s 82nd birthday. Featuring an array of the UK s finest players, many of whom have long connections with the band leader (and several of whom played on a career highlight, the 1990 ECM album Music for Large and Small Ensembles), The Long Waiting proves well worth the wait.



There's a kind of magic about Kenny Wheeler, both his playing and his composition. Everything he invents, even the most abstract musical shape, turns out to be melodic. He is surrounded here by 20 of Britain's finest jazz players from several generations, and everything they play comes out sounding like a bit of Kenny. He's a great trumpet player, but here he sticks to the mellow, soft-voiced flugelhorn, sidling in and stealing the show every time. His orchestration is gorgeous, too, with the remarkable, wordless voice of Diana Torto prominent. The squad of excellent soloists includes saxophonist Ray Warleigh, trombonist Mark Nightingale and pianist John Taylor. FOUR STARS –The Observer

Kenny Wheeler, the expat Canadian trumpeter and jazz composer, was 82 last week but this big band session featuring new themes and plenty of flugelhorn improvising, was recorded only a few months ago. Wheeler still practises four hours a day and writes for another four. The pieces here glow with his inimitably bittersweet harmonies and build melodic fragments that sound like snatches of wistful songs into richly layered, choirlike effects. They sound as fresh as if he'd just discovered his muse. Wheeler's flugelhorn-playing has its wobbly moments, but his upper-register sound still soars and glides. It's complemented by trenchant playing from a classy band that includes alto-saxist Ray Warleigh, trombonist Barnaby Dickinson and pianist John Taylor, with Italian vocalist Diana Torto functioning as an extra saxophone, soloing dazzlingly on Enowena. Comba N3, with its pensive flugelhorn and delicate alto-sax passages, and the lovely Old Ballad (a Wheeler staple) are among the highlights of another essential item for followers of Britain's most reluctant jazz hero. FOUR STARS –The Guardian


Tracklist:

1. Canter N.6 [04:18]
2. Four, Five, Six [09:50]
3. The Long Waiting [07:27]
4. Seven, Eight, Nine [05:33]
5. Enowena [11:23]
6. Comba N.3 [07:58]
7. Canter N.1 / Old Ballad [14:11]
8. Upwards [07:47]

Personnel:

John Parricelli - Guitar
Julian Arguelles - Soprano & Tenor Sax
Martin France - Drums
John Taylor - Piano
Kenny Wheeler - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Pete Churchill - Conductor
Diana Torto - vocals
Ray Warleigh - Alto Sax
Duncan Lamont - Alto Sax
Stan Sulzmann - Tenor Sax
Julian Siegel - Tenor Sax
Henry Lowther - Trumpet
Derek Watkins - Trumpet
Tony Fisher - Trumpet
Nick Smart - Trumpet
Mark Nightingale - Trombone
Barnaby Dickinson - Trombone
Dave Horler - Trombone
Dave Stewart - Bass Trombone
Chris Laurence - Bass