The UK jazz scene is still reeling from the loss, over the past year, of two of its most cherished sons, adopted Toronto-born trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and native Mancunian pianist John Taylor.
Both had, in their own ways, exerted huge influence over younger generations, and both leave behind individual bodies of work that will continue to illuminate the musical path ahead.
But together, Taylor and Wheeler had a connection to which the old “telepathic” epithet does not do justice.
Wheeler’s harmonic conception was unique and particular, and no pianist understood it better than Taylor.
Recorded in 2006 and approved for release by the pianist in the months after Wheeler’s death, here are two masters of improvisation caught in a private moment, as riveting as an overheard conversation.
