Kenny Wheeler was a shy and self-deprecating man who shrank from the acclaim that increasingly came his way in the decades before his death last year at the age of 84. So it’s only now that we can give the Canadian jazz artist his due without the danger of his notoriously modest ears burning.
He was, in his own melancholy way, among the most important jazz voices of the past 50 years, a player, composer and bandleader who staked out his own unique harmonic terrain and exerted a quiet but powerful influence over the musicians who came after him. His was a talent and a stature similar to Samuel Beckett’s in drama, a voice that could sing the joy in despair, an artist who responded to the bittersweet absurdity of life with his own transformative art.
“Sad music makes me feel happy,” he once said. “My favourite people in jazz are the ones who sound a bit sad: Billie Holiday, Miles Davis.”
Wheeler's relationship with the ECM label spanned four decades and produced some of the most influential recordings of contemporary jazz: Gnu High (1975), with Keith Jarrett making a rare sideman appearance; Deer Wan (1977), with guitarist John Abercrombie and saxophonist Jan Garbarek; Music for Large and Small Ensembles (1990), the definitive contemporary big band record that many regard as his masterpiece; and Angel Song (1996), with his "drummerless" quartet that included saxophonist Lee Konitz.
Songs for Quintet, Wheeler's last musical utterance, recorded at Abbey Road studios in December 2013, is a worthy addition to that catalogue, a parting gift from a great musician. Seven new compositions (he continued to practise and compose for eight hours a day until the end of his life), plus two reclaimed from his capacious back catalogue, are played with sensitivity and poise by saxophonist Stan Sulzman, guitarist John Parricelli, bassist Chris Laurence and drummer Martin France. Though his strength is clearly failing, Wheeler delivers a performance on his trademark flugelhorn that is powerful and tender, and will bring a tear the eye of any who has followed his career. As Wheeler himself might have observed, not all tears are in sadness. propermusic.com
