Tribute concert for Kenny Wheeler - Cadogan Hall, 19 Nov.

[Serial_Apologist]

By the looks of this, in terms of those invited Kenny is in for a posthumous tribute at this coming Cadogan Hall gig far outpassing anything in one single go he was able to enjoy in his hugely creative lifetime:

http://www.cadoganhall.com/event/kenny-wheeler-151119/

I've just been down and got my ticket. All the tenners - the few that were available - had gone by 2 pm, and I was able to get one at £25, downstairs in the far left hand corner at the back, facing the stage. No concessions, and the majority of the seats are for £30.

This will be my gig of the London Jazz Festival this year. Is anyone going - to this, or to any other event of the festival?

[Ian Thumwood]

SA

Meant to ask what this concert was like. The first part of the concert seemed to look like having plenty of interest although I am not too sure if I would have enjoyed the second set. I must admit that I would probably have been more interested in hearing Ralph Towner more than any other of the musicians. I am a huge fan of his playing and find him both consistent and extremely compelling. He is a player, like John Abercrombie, who defines the very best of ECM and perhaps is truer to the label's original principles. I have heard him on a few occasions - the last was with Paulo Frescu. I will never forget when I took my Dad to see Oregon about twenty five years ago as I wanted him to experience something contemporary and he hated the fact that Trilok Gurtu sat throughout the whole gig. I was transfixed by the music but my Dad still goes on about this being the worst jazz gig he has ever been to!!

[Serial_Apologist]

Hi Ian

I nearly didn't go because I was starting to succumb to a very bad cold that is only departing just now. I was in the far left corner downstairs in one of the £25 seats, about as far from what was going on onstage as was possible to get. This together with trying to ignore not feeling well had the additional effect of making everything seem far away and, like me, unengaged, though of the performers Pursglove on trumpet made a reasonable stand-in for Kenny, Norma Winstone was in the best voice I have heard her in for several years, and Stan Sulzmann I thought by far the most committed soloist, really giving it his all with superb edge compared to the I thought lackadaisical Mark Lockheart, who is usually so good. Towner was OK I guess; Norma had turned her wordsmithy's genius onto some of his tunes - not Kenny's in their duets - and there was some really lovely choral backing from the Royal Academy Jazz Choir, I think it was, arranged previously by Pete Churchill, a.k.a Mr Nikki Iles, who herself occupied the piano chair for the majority of proceedings with her usual sensitive restraint. She'd be great backing Trish Clowes! The ever-genial Dave Holland followed on from Chris Laurence after the first quintet set, thereafter doing all the announcements, but despite himself having one of his best ever bands around, Stateside, his playing seems to me to have eschewed all distinctiveness, when I think of how in Circle in 1970/71 he was translating Bartok string writing virtuosity into spontaneous jazz terms, telling Miles what to listen out for, and blowing the minds of people like Paul Rogers to follow up on, I tend to get mixed up between Kenny's tunes - lovely and great improvisation vehicles thought they are, they acquire greater similarity with his passing years - but the event ended with one of his more rousing ones, movingly followed by a relaying of "Solo One", the unaccompanied trumpet solo drawing a line through a sequence of mostly minor eighths and octaves from "Around Six", which Kenny once said was the only thing by himself on record that he could bear to listen to, although this was not mentioned. Apart from one short freely improvised set from Pursglove, Evan Parker, John Edwards, Steve Beresford and Louis Moholo-Moholo which was good but seemed out of context and not of sufficient length to "switch listening mode" (maybe down to me though) there wasn't really anything to distinguish parts one and two, though in my case the excellent black coffee served in the break was a welcome boost to my flagging state! I'm sorry this is such an inadequate report on proceedings.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Slightly off your thread but I picked up the Dave Holland Quintet Live 1986 DVD this week (Frieburg Festival), DH with Steve Coleman, Robin Eubanks, Marvin Smith and Kenny. Hugely impressed by this edition of the band and the playing by all but especially Coleman and certainly Wheeler. Playing more "free" and with an enthused DH. A lot of Holland's stuff is good but can wash over me sometimes. I like the "edge" on this.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

I've lost touch with Dave Holland's more recent stuff but throughout the 1990's and 2000s his records were pretty much essential and amongst the best jazz ECM put out. Holland's departure marked a point at which I lost interest in the German label whereas I was an avid collector of DH's quintet recordings. There is a superb quartet album called "Expressions" which features the Coleman, Kevin Eubanks and Smith which is absolutely amazing.

I read an interview with Kenny Wheeler once where he expressed the difficulty he had coming to terms with Coleman's unique approach to jazz and how hard it was to grasp his peculiar meters and harmonies. He made a comment about really using his ear to play the music as opposed to delving deep in to Coleman's musical philosophy. Looking back thirty years, this was a pretty bizarre partnership and whilst Holland embraced Coleman's approach, the coupling of Coleman and Wheeler now seems like a really unlikely one despite seeming logical at the time. (A bit like Bill Frisell appearing on Jan Garbarek's "Wayfarer.")

Kenny Wheeler was one of my heroes and , in my estimation, a truly original soloist and arranger. However, I find his music a bit rich and listening to it on end is like trying to munch your way through a whole fruitcake. (Very nice to begin with but a bit difficult digest by the last crumb.) I think he was timeless and his music is better for not being limited to a particular time or idiom. The likes of Taylor, Holland and Wheeler present the very apogee of British jazz.