# CD review: The Kenny Wheeler Big Band & Friends – Live ’71 – 2023: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/06/28/review-the-kenny-wheeler-big-band-friends-live-71-2023-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2023-06-28T00:04:17+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Anyone with an interest in British modern jazz over the last fifty years or so
cannot fail to be aware of the music of Kenny Wheeler. The Canadian trumpeter and
composer who was equally adept at performing on the flugelhorn made the United Kingdom
his home from the 1950s until his death in 2014 at the age of 84. **

Beginning his musical journey on the cornet in Toronto at the age of 12, he discovered
a love for jazz in his mid-teens and whilst most of his work was rooted in jazz,
he was also active in free improvisation, jazz rock and sometimes contributed to
rock music recordings. He is credited with writing more than one hundred compositions
and arranging music for both small groups and large ensembles.

Upon his arrival in Britain in 1952 he gravitated towards the London jazz scene 
and work followed by the likes of saxophonists Tommy Whittle, Ronnie Scott, and 
Tubby Hayes. He studied composition with Richard Rodney Bennett and the American
trombonist and composer Bill Russo, whilst Russo was on sabbatical in London. Putting
his learning to good use, he performed and recorded his own compositions with large
ensembles throughout his career, recording his first set of compositions with the
John Dankworth orchestra in 1969. His first large group recording under his own 
name featuring his characteristic orchestral writing was unusual in its fusing of
a semi-conventional big band lineup with leading members of the free jazz scene,
including saxophonist Evan Parker and guitarist Derek Bailey. The resulting album
Song for Someone was released in 1973 and received the accolade of Album of the 
Year in Melody Maker magazine in 1975.

Since the time of his death, there have been various tribute albums paying homage
to Wheeler’s extended legacy of compositions. One of the best being an album of 
small group compositions previously unrecorded and released last year by bass player
Chris Laurence Some Gnu Ones on the esteemed Jazz in Britain label. Now we have 
something to match that with the release of Live ’71: The Kenny Wheeler Big Band&
Friends, released both as a download and a CD, on the enterprising British Progressive
Jazz label. The mathematicians amongst you will quickly realise that the music dates
from two years prior to Song for Someone. The personnel is not dissimilar to that
on the earlier release and it’s interesting to hear how some of the music subtly
evolved over the intervening period. Evan Parker remains and, as previously, the
personnel includes an interesting mix of seasoned stalwarts of the London session
scene of the time and some of the ‘young lions’ just then starting to make an impression
in the modern jazz arena in Britain.

The material for the album has never been released commercially and consists of 
a live session from 24 May 1971 previously broadcast on the BBC Jazz Club programme
and represents the earliest known recording of Wheeler leading his own big band.
The album opens with ‘Mikei’ and in this respect replicates the opening track from
the later album release where interestingly the tune is renamed as ‘Toot-Toot’. 
This is a powerful opening and highlights the wordless vocals on Norma Winstone 
in the opening theme statement. The piece overall seems to lack some of the excitement
and urgency of the album version. Perhaps this might have been due to the live recording
environment. Nonetheless, Wheeler delivers an impassioned solo around the mid-way
point with John Taylor following on electric piano. Before the collective brass 
mass together to recapitulate the majestic theme, the whole underpinned by the mighty
Ron Mathewson on double bass and the inimitable Tony Oxley behind the drums. What
was to become the album title track is next and ‘Song for Someone’ marks a change
of pace and allows prominence to Winstone’s wordless vocals once more, where she
admirably sketches the melody of this typically melancholy Wheeler ballad, the performance
here being almost twice the length of the album version and quite significantly 
different. However, once the melody is disposed of Oxley thunders in with the band,
once more raising the temperature before giving way to more electric piano from 
Taylor.

‘Some Days Are Better’ follows and is soon swinging at a delightful mid-tempo. Tony
Roberts takes a particularly melodic solo before Wheeler is back for a further fire-
laden solo supported by the Taylor/Mathewson/Oxley rhythm section which in turn 
gives way to the duo of trombonist ( I imagine Chris Pyne) and Mathewson before 
more piano from Taylor brings in an angular theme statement prior to the frantic
alto saxophone of Mike Osborne taking the music into free-form territory, followed
in a similar vein by Mathewson. This eleven-minute performance is a particular treat
as it was not included on the subsequent album and proves to be a real tour-de-force.

The album concludes with ‘CP EP’, both a dedication to and feature for Chris Pyne
and Evan Parker. Pyne is customarily robust and forthright in his solo exposition,
at times accompanied only by Oxley before the brass re-join the fray to usher in
the high harmonics and high energy of saxophonist Evan Parker for a further foray
into the realms of free jazz. In all a powerhouse six-minute finale to this live
broadcast performance which, thanks to Matt Parker and colleagues at British Progressive
Jazz is now available for us all to hear either once again or perhaps for the first
time.

It is almost invidious to compare this broadcast with the better-known album as 
only two pieces are common to both and thus they both offer new and significant 
insights into the music of the British modern jazz scene of the 1970s.

1. Mikei 6:42
 2. Song For Someone 5:18 3. Some Days Are Better 11:17 4. CP EP 6:
15

**Kenny Wheeler – trumpet & flugelhorn**
 **Mike Osborne – alto saxophone** **David
Horler – trombone** **Tony Roberts – tenor saxophone** **Ian Hamer – trumpet** **
Greg Bowen – trumpet** **Dave Hancock – trumpet** **Bobby Lamb – trombone** **Keith
Christie – trombone** **Pete Harvey – trombone** **Alfie Reece – tuba** **Alan Branscombe–
piano** **John Taylor – electric piano** **Ron Mathewson – double bass** **Tony 
Oxley – drums & percussion**

**With guest appearances by:**
 **Evan Parker – tenor saxophone (track 4)** **Chris
Pyne – trombone (track 4)** **Norma Winstone – voice (track 2)**

![Live '71: The Kenny Wheeler Big Band & Friends | Kenny Wheeler | British  Progressive
Jazz](https://i0.wp.com/f4.bcbits.com/img/0032117320_10.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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