He improvised with Anthony Braxton and Evan Parker, collaborated with Wadada Leo Smith, Steve Coleman and Don Cherry, played in large orchestras like The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra and the Roscoe Mitchell Creative Orchestra, but also in medium-sized ensembles like quintets, sextets, septets and nonets. He also played in small ensembles like the British trio Azimuth (alongside John Taylor and Norma Winstone). Kenny Wheeler played with everyone all over the place, and it was not just for this reason that The Wire wrote in 1987 that »Kenny Wheeler is a damned important musician«.
The Toronto-born trumpeter achieved his breakthrough in 1976 with »Gnu High«. It features three compositions that he recorded along with Keith Jarrett on piano, Dave Holland on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. What a quartet! The almost 22-minute long »Heyoke« already delivers an impressive panorama of temporary jazz. It breaks free of styles and schools and can be quite wild and then introverted in the next moment. Harmonious here, hulking there, North America here, Europe there, group here, individual there. The two B-side titles, »Smatter« and »Gnu Suite,« follow this pattern. Kenny Wheeler himself seems to be most at ease with himself in the free moments.
All told, »Gnu High« is a kind of compendium of good old jazz. No wonder then that ECM chose this album to kick off its new Luminescence vinyl series. Over the next few years, ECM is going to release selected works from the label’s catalogue in remastered reissues, cut from the original analogue master tapes, accompanied by in-depth liner notes and artists’ photos, and packaged in high-quality gatefold covers.
