Kenny Wheeler - Songs for Quintet
(ECM 2388 / 6025 470 4653. CD Review by Sebastian Scotney)
The last period of Kenny Wheeler's life gave rise to the development of a unmistakeable personal style in which melodic expression is simplified, direct and irresistible. That late flowering has been succinctly and beautifully captured on Songs for Quintet, indeed perhaps better than anywhere else.
The CD presents a recording of what proved to be Wheeler's last performance. It was made at Abbey Road Studios in December 2013, in the company of the regular quintet in his final years. It was recorded over two days with both Steve Lake and Manfred Eicher present.
The recording marks Wheeler's return to ECM after a gap, a “Long Waiting” of most of two decades. The recording has significance as a notable chapter in the much bigger story, which is the likely durability of Wheeler's music and the worldwide scale of its influence. But it also should be seen outside of that context and on its intrinsic merits as music of expressive intensity played by a quintet from the elite of European jazz,
There are several tracks on Songs for Quintet which inhabit the listener's consciousness, in my case, tracks 1, 2, 6 and 8 have gone straight in from the very first listen. They are benign ear-worms. They just don't go away.
Repeated listens reinforce not just the appeal of these tunes but also the quality of the dialogue and the interaction which the material inspires. The tunes are vehicles for call and response, for a statement of a short melodic fragment to be heard and responded to. In Stan Sulzmann, who occupies the role of answerer, commenter to Wheeler's first statements, the composer and flugelhorn player had the ideal foil, alter ego, brother, echo. The presence of that second voice, Sulzmann's endless imagination in finding and placing the perfect counter-melody ensures that no phrase that Kenny Wheeler utters ever goes to waste. It is fitting that Sulzmann also had a major role in overseeing the sessions and the post-production. The saxophonist's thoughtfulness, balance and good judgment are present in abundance on this album.
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