What Now?
CAM5005 2005-04-26
Track List
Iowa City - 10:02
One Two Three - 08:15
March Mist - 06:19
The Lover Mourns - 07:43
The Sweet Yakity Waltz - 08:48
What Now? - 07:47
For Tracy - 06:19
Verona - 09:35
Musicians
Kenny Wheeler - fluegelhorn
Chris Potter - tenor sax
John Taylor - piano
Dave Holland - double bass
Recorded in New York on 1, 2 June 2004 at Sear Sound Studio
Recording Engineer James Farber
What Now? continues Wheeler’s exploration of a drumless modern jazz approach and features him on flugelhorn only. Taylor joins Wheeler again for this project, in addition to other longtime musical collaborators, bassist Dave Holland and tenor saxophonist Chris Potter. What Now? features eight original compositions by Wheeler and displays a fluidity of band interplay that comes from the personal working history these four great musicians have of each other, as Ira Gitler explains in the album’s liner notes. Wheeler adds, “Strong players as these three are an orchestra in themselves. You give them a piece of paper and you don’t have to say anything.”
Reviews
GRAMMY nominated - 2005 - Jazz instrumentalParaphrasing char line from Cool Hand Luke, what we have here is another chapter in the Art of the Duo canon, that most intimate of jazz groupings. Kenny Wheeler is a Canadian-born, UK-based trumpeter/composer (also flugelhorn) who's worked with jazz's most "out" (Anthony Braxton) as well the most mainstream factions (Maynard Ferguson. Frequent collaborators in the past, they perform a nearly all-originals program of meas¬ured, vividly detailed and elegiac beauty. Wheeler's mournful tone recalls (ever-so-slightly) early 1960s Miles Davis, and Taylor takes after Bill Evans (lyrical, not one unessential note). While it never succumbs to background music bland-out, What Now? is the perfect companion for post-rough days, restless nights and unhurried mornings.
Mark Keresman
