Search - Kenny Wheeler :: Gnu High

Canadian-born, English-bred trumpeter and fluegelhorn player Kenny Wheeler has been a mainstay of Germany's ECM Records since the mid-'70s. Aside from his own recordings as a leader, Wheeler has performed as part of the bands Azimuth and the Dave Holland Quintet, and recorded as a sideman with Bill Frisell, Ralph Towner, and the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra. Like the label, Wheeler is adept at working the middle-ground between the stylish and the experimental: he has absorbed all of the major jazz trends of the last 30 years, and can play them all with verve and conviction. On Gnu High, Wheeler sticks to the fluegelhorn, achieving a mellow, rounded sound that suggests his debt to Art Farmer and late-'50s Miles Davis. A superb and unusually sympathetic quartet features Keith Jarrett on piano, Dave Holland on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The album's three extended compositions allow Wheeler to stretch out to great effect, particularly on the 22-minute "Heyoke." --Fred Goodman