KENNY WHEELER BIG BAND The Long Waiting

 

1. Canter N. 6

2. Four, Five, Six

3. The Long Waiting

4. Seven, Eight, Nine

5. Enowena

6. Comba N. 3

7. Canter N. 1 - Old Ballad

8. Upwards

 

All music composed and arranged by Kenny Wheeler

 

Kenny Wheeler - flugelhorn; Pete Churchill - conductor; Henry Lowther, Derek Watkins, Tony Fisher, Nick Smart - trumpet; Ray Warleigh, Duncan Lamont - alto sax; Stan Sulzmann, Julian Siegel - tenor sax; Julian Argüelles - baritone sax; Dave Horler, Mark Nightingale, Barnaby Dickinson - trombone; Dave Stewart - bass trombone; Diana Torto - vocals; John Taylor - piano; John Parricelli - guitar; Chris Laurence - bass; Martin France - drums

 

Earlier in the year the Royal Academy announced a new Jazz Prize to be awarded to a music graduate demonstrating "excellence in both performance and composition." The name of the prize? It is named after someone befitting such a rare honour: The Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize.

 

An elder statesman of UK jazz (following his move here from his native Canada in 1952), Wheeler’s exemplary career continues apace. There are the early records in the groups of Tubby Hayes, Joe Harriott and Ronnie Scott; his membership of two of the key improv bands – Spontaneous Music Ensemble and the Globe Unity Orchestra; his jazz-rock phase with Bill Bruford, Mike Gibbs and as a member of the United Jazz and Rock ensemble; His Azimuth trio with John Taylor and Norma Winstone, which formed a part of his long association with the ECM label from the seventies on; and a number of other groups large and small, leading to his recent spate of high calibre recordings for the CAM Jazz label.

 

Now CAM Jazz release a new big band album of eight Wheeler compositions, to coincide with the trumpeter’s 82^nd birthday. Featuring an array of the UK’s finest players, many of whom have long connections with the band leader (and several of whom played on a career highlight, the 1990 ECM album Music for Large and Small Ensembles), The Long Waiting proves well worth the wait.

 

Cam Jazz CAMJ78482