The Music of Kenny Wheeler
Arthur’s, Dublin
★★★★☆
It’s hard to think of anyone in the jazz world who hasn’t at some point been drawn to, or influenced by, the music of Kenny Wheeler.
The Toronto-born trumpet and flugelhorn player, who lived most of his life in London and died in 2014, at the age of 84, had a virtuoso technique and compellingly limpid tone that lent themselves to an impressively wide range of contexts, from straight-ahead postbop to big bands, free improvisation and even occasional guest-soloist spots on albums by Joni Mitchell, David Sylvian and Spiritualized.
He was also one of modern jazz’s most important composers, writing music for small groups and large ensembles, much of it recorded for the estimable German label ECM, which brilliantly blended audacious yet accessible melodies with harmonically rich and unconventional colours.
And yet, curiously, Wheeler remained something of an enigma. Perhaps it was partly a result of his personality. In stark contrast to the power and projection in his playing, he was famously reticent and withdrawn; he also had a self-deprecating wit and gentle humility that sometimes spilled over into personal doubt and dissatisfaction.
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Or maybe it was because his often “beautiful sad” songs and disparate music didn’t quite fit in. “I became one of those people who was too far in for some and too far out for others,” he once said.
This concert in Dublin’s “home of blues and jazz” – the clublike, dimly lit upstairs room of Arthur’s Pub, in the Liberties – aims squarely at counteracting such paradoxes by being both a heartfelt celebration of Wheeler’s music and the Irish launch of a comprehensive biography of him, Song for Someone.
Featuring an all-star Irish line-up that includes the electric bassist Ronan Guilfoyle and the tenor saxophonist Michael Buckley, both of whom played with Wheeler, and two outstanding next-generation players, Leopoldo Osio on piano and Brendan Doherty on drums, the quintet is completed by the English trumpeter and flugelhornist Nick Smart, who, as well as being head of jazz at the Royal Academy of Music, was a close friend, colleague and supporter of Wheeler’s. Smart is also one of the book’s authors.
Playing Wheeler’s own flugelhorn, which the late musician’s family gave him as a gift, Smart proves to be at once the perfect host, guide and devotee. Over two sets featuring such timeless Wheeler classics as Everybody’s Song But My Own, Kind Folk, A Simple Toon and Foxy Trot, plus Irving Berlin’s How Deep Is the Ocean?, one of Wheeler’s favourite standards, Smart is a benevolently mobilising force, announcing the tunes, directing the solos and smiling broadly and encouragingly from the sidelines when not playing.
He has a lot to be happy about. This is a band that raises itself up, clearly inspired and invigorated by the originality of the material. Buckley and Smart, in particular, play superbly together, deftly intertwining written and extempore lines as if they’ve been playing together for years.
Manfred Eicher, the long-standing creative force behind ECM, told Smart that Wheeler was “a soulful and solitary musician, very lyrical and at the same time very energetic ... a character who can tell a story”. The eloquent story being told on this exceptional Dublin evening is one of beauty, respect, commemoration and depth of feeling. It is a tribute that keeps the great man’s music vibrantly alive.
