Artist: Kenny Wheeler

Date of Release: 01/01/1998

Catalogue no: ECM 1691

Label: ECM

Price: £12

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Track Listing

Although Kenny Wheeler has been writing for jazz orchestras and other large ensembles for more than 40 years, very little of this work is available on disc. All the more reason to welcome "A Long Time Ago", subtitled "Music for Brass Ensemble and Soloists". After some particularly successful concerts in London, local brass players led by Henry Lowther and Derek Watkins insisted that these new Wheeler compositions be documented, and Kenny's long time associate Evan Parker was recruited as producer. The resultant recording is very special, a large group album with an intimate tone which seems to sit midway between earlier classics such as "Music for Large and Small Ensembles" and "Angel Song". Wheeler's flugelhorn playing is magnificent while the writing reveals the "buoyant, romantic melancholy" that has come to be Kenny's musical signature.

Kenny Wheeler flugelhorn
John Taylor piano
John Parricelli guitar
Derek Watkins trumpet
John Barclay trumpet
Henry Lowther trumpet
Ian Hamer trumpet
Pete Beachill trombone
Richard Edwards trombone
Mark Nightingale trombone
Sarah Williams bass trombone
David Stewart bass trombone
Tony Faulkner conductor

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