Kenny Wheeler is one the great original compositional voices of contemporary jazz. The use of the present tense is deliberate because the Canadian born, but English adopted trumpet player and composer still has a major impact on this international music. Wheeler’s innovations in harmony and his trademark “sweet melancholy” melodies continue to influence the writing of the generations that followed him, particularly in his large ensemble compositions where, like Ellington, he was renowned for writing for the player before the instrument. To some extent we are fortunate that his work – both as a composer and a hugely moving trumpet and flugelhorn player – is significantly captured from the mid 1970s onwards when he became a much-treasured stalwart of the ECM label.
Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores, however, focusses on a four year era from 1968 when Wheeler’s only regular recording outlet was an annual session for the BBC. The project is a true labour of love, born from the passion, dedication and friendship of Nick Smart, Head of Jazz Programmes at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Nick played with and studied Kenny and became a great friend. Following Wheeler’s passing at the age of 84 in 2014, Nick worked hard to acquire the Wheeler Archive for the RAM and began co-writing his biography. Ten years later the book is finally published. It turned out to be a gargantuan task as Wheeler was, despite being the most self-effacing musician that jazz has ever known, extremely prolific and greatly lauded.
To coincide with the release of the book and what would have been Kenny’s 95th birthday Nick pulled together sessions with the Royal Academy of Music Orchestra and the University of Miami’s Frost Jazz Orchestra to play some of those “lost” BBC scores – retrieved from folders and plastic bags in the archive. The orchestra is augmented by a host of Wheeler fans, devotees, and past colleagues such as Shelly Berg, Etienne Charles, James Copus, John Daversa, Ingrid Jensen, Brian Lynch, Evan Parker, Chris Potter, Nick Smart and Norma Winstone.
The result is a triumph and a truly worthy addition to the canon of Wheeler’s recorded music. The scores reflects a bold new approach that emerged during a hugely fertile run that combined Wheeler’s now legendary exquisite harmonic and melodic touch, with the fire and fearlessness of all his free-jazz sensibilities from the same period.
Kenny Wheeler, like Nick Smart, was dedicated to jazz education and a belief in passing on to the next generation. So it’s fitting that this music is played by, alongside the more established names, another wave of students who could dive in to Kenny’s wonderful musical world. This is how Nick Smart puts it :
“Alongside the extraordinary music, the real stars are the plethora of exceptional young talents in the combined jazz orchestra of RAM and FROST. The passion, commitment, and empathy with which they approached this project touched everyone – not least members of the Wheeler family who were present, and Norma and Evan for whom this music evokes so many memories of years gone by and lost friends,”
This is our Album Of The Week on One Jazz w/c Monday 10th February 2025.