Kenny Wheeler Gnu High LP

Tracking Angle Rated 9/10 Music, 8/10 Sonics!

TAS Rated 5/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the October 2023 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Luminessence, ECM's new audiophile vinyl reissue series, is a kaleidoscope, shedding light on the jewels of the label's deep catalogue in elegant, high-quality editions. The hallmarks of the series: original and evocative music, imaginatively played and sensitively produced. The recordings underline the scope and variety of ECM's world of sound and the LPs are presented in different formats.

The series features albums that have changed perceptions of creative music making, albums now heralded as classics.

Gnu High was trumpeter/flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler's first for ECM, and Keith Jarrett's last session as a sideman: both deliver astonishing improvisations in a highly interactive quartet with Holland and DeJohnette, and Wheeler's writing is captivating.

Wheeler plays flugelhorn exclusively on Gnu High. The combination of his beautiful compositions and the seamless interplay and improvisation of four elite musicians at the top of their game, makes for thrilling listening. Wheeler's soaring tone and exquisite technique, beautiful phrasing and innovative melodic choices; the way Jarrett's ecstatic piano weaves seamlessly in and out of Wheeler's compositions, the very elastic swing and sway of Holland and DeJohnette: Just great, great music.

The centerpiece of the record, a sidelong suite entitled 'Heyoke,' finds the quartet taking numerous detours during an extended musical journey, and the result is a performance where the whole exceeds the sum of its parts. The reissue of Gnu High was cut from the original masters, and side-by-side comparisons with my original German pressing reveal many of the same virtues: The sound is seductive, there's plenty of air between instruments, Wheeler's flugelhorn floats over the other instruments like a high-flying bird, and you hear every nuance of an unusually nimble rhythm section. If you're hearing 'Heyoke' for the first time, put your cell phone in the other room and listen all the way through—and then flip the platter.

a gem I'd never heard before this reissue, and it keeps giving with each repeat listen