Kenny Wheeler Legacy - LYDIALIEBMAN.COM

Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores
Release Date: January 31, 2025
Label: Greenleaf

Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores is a wide-ranging, expansive new project celebrating the legacy of one of the great, original voices in contemporary jazz, Kenny Wheeler. Released to coincide with the publication of Wheeler’s highly anticipated biography on Equinox Publications, Some Days Are Better explores an undiscovered treasure of rarely-heard works by the iconic composer from a crucial and largely unknown period in his musical emergence. A transatlantic occasion, this project combines features the Royal Academy of Music Jazz Orchestra from the UK and University of Miami’s Frost Jazz Orchestra and is augmented by a host of Wheeler fans, devotees, and past colleagues such as Shelly Berg, Etienne Charles, James Copus, John Daversa, Ingrid Jensen, Brian Lynch, Evan Parker, Chris Potter, Nick Smart and Norma Winstone.

Recorded in partnership between the Royal Academy of Music (London) and the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, Some Days Are Better comes to light directly following what would have been Wheeler’s 95th birthday (on January 14), and in tandem with the launch of Song for Someone: The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler (Brian Shaw and Nick Smart, Equinox Publishing).

Kenny Wheeler is considered one of the most influential figures in contemporary jazz. Born in Toronto in 1930 but based in the UK from 1952, by the 1960’s Wheeler had become highly regarded in the London scene, known as a post-bop trumpeter and flugelhorn player inspired by Booker Little and Freddie Hubbard, but also as a pioneering free player moving into unexplored territory alongside improvisers such as John Stevens, Evan Parker, Dave Holland and Derek Bailey. He died in 2014 at the age of 84, leaving behind an impactful legacy that has remained towering influence for legions of acolytes. Legendary bassist and NEA jazz master, Dave Holland, a lifelong colleague of Wheeler, characterized him as so: “Kenny was a true original, always in the music. For his generation, he contributed a harmonic language, which at that time was brand new. Who he was, as a person, was embodied in the music in a certain way, which is the highest form of artistry."

Some Days Are Better focuses on a distinct period of Wheeler’s musical output that has, up until now, gone largely unheard, and is regarded as a “missing link” in his catalog. Wheelers' debut release as a composer was Windmill Tilter by the John Dankworth Band, released in 1968. Immediately following that, when he was finally the leader of his own big band, there was a four-year period during which his only venue was annual/bi-annual BBC broadcasts. In this highly fertile period, a bold new approach emerged that combined his now legendary exquisite harmonic and melodic touch, with the fire and fearlessness of all his free-jazz sensibilities from the same period. The only public record of this period is the 1973 recording Song For Someone, Wheeler’s true debut as a leader.

This was a period of rapid growth and development for an already mature artist, a largely undocumented outpouring of bold, experimental, and beautiful music whose conception was made possible only because of the circumstances that coalesced for Kenny at that exact moment. It was also music that burned fast and bright in his catalog before further circumstances required the consolidation into the more distilled, and perhaps even conventional, large ensemble music he is known more widely for.

“While researching the BBC archives for the writing of his biography, it became clear that the music from these early broadcasts was critical in filling out the picture of Kenny’s personality as a composer,” Nick Smart, Head of Jazz Programmes at the Royal Academy of Music in London, remarked. “We had also acquired the Kenny Wheeler Archive into the Royal Academy’s Collections in 2012, and it became apparent that much of this music was contained within the many plastic bags and cardboard boxes we’d unloaded from his attic.”

This unique legacy project has been curated by Smart, who in addition to co-authoring his biography, was a close friend and colleague of Kenny’s. Smart was instrumental in acquiring the Wheeler Archive in the Library Collections, and it was through meticulous research for the book and access to the archive that this project took shape.

The special guest soloists include legendary trumpeters Ingrid Jensen, Brian Lynch, and Etienne Charles, young UK star James Copus, pianist Shelly Berg, saxophonist Chris Potter (who recorded with Wheeler on 2005’s What Now?), two icons of British and European Jazz in the great Norma Winstone and Evan Parker – both of whom were lifelong colleagues of Kenny’s and featured on the original BBC broadcasts in the 1970s – and the two directors of the Academy and Frost respectively, trumpeters Nick Smart and John Daversa. It is a testament to Wheeler’s legacy that such a diverse and wide-ranging collection of musicians should wish to be part of this – all overseen in the executive production for Greenleaf by Dave Douglas, himself a fan and friend of Kenny’s and with whom he oversaw his lifetime contribution acknowledged in 2011’s Festival of New Trumpet Music residency.

“Kenny Wheeler’s unique musical vision as a composer, trumpeter, and improviser is deeply woven into the fabric of the modern jazz canon. His influence on all of us is undeniable, and it’s both an honor and a thrill to help bring these “lost” masterworks back to life for audiences to experience,” commented John Daversa.

Wheeler himself frequently cited the importance of his BBC broadcasts, and for such a famously shy and self-deprecating musician he also spoke with rare confidence and belief for the music and the band that came from this period. Accompanying the recording is a 36-page full-color booklet featuring an abridged essay by Nick Smart, which elaborates on this period and more. “Alongside the extraordinary music, the real stars are the plethora of exceptional young talents in the combined jazz orchestra of the Academy and Frost. The passion, commitment, and empathy with which they approached this project touched everyone – not least members of the Wheeler family who were present, and Norma and Evan for whom this music evokes so many memories of years gone by and lost friends,” Smart reflected. “Their playing, the improvising, and their sheer grasp of the profundity as to why this music is important and remains so timeless is the true testament to the Kenny Wheeler Legacy presented here.” Daversa added: “One of the most beautiful outcomes of our cross-Atlantic collaboration was the genuine, unshakable bond that formed between the Academy and Frost band members. It all blossomed through the magic of Kenny Wheeler’s music and the inspiration of guest jazz luminaries like Norma Winstone and Evan Parker.”