Calming long improvisations - Gnu High is made up of three songs, but you get the sense the song breaks are somewhat arbitrary. Kenny Wheeler has a top-notch group of Keith Jarrett (in his last sideman appearance), Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette. The 22-minute Heyoke starts with trumpet, then eventually Jarrett takes a long solo. Though you think the song is over before it really is, it all comes together very well. The playing is creative and calm. Since they don t go for the cheap thrill, it takes a listen or two to dig into this CD, but it s well worth the effort.
Superb, indispensable, rhapsodic - When this came out in the 70s, I bought a used vinyl copy and played it to death. Jarrett sounded so great--and who the heck was the trumpet player? Since, I ve learned who Kenny Wheeler is. Oh, yes. As an inveterate fan of these two great artists, I can t say that either has ever made a better album. And that s saying--well, everything. It s beauty, passion, swing, a kaleidoscope of emotions and an emormous underlying tranquility as large as the ultimate oceanic truth played here. Yes, it has stood the test of time--imitated by legions, but still worthy of being played over and again.
Coly How! - Wheeler likes to use word play with his song titles. Gnu High, Deer Wan, and so on. The creativity doesn t stop there. I purchased this when it came out on vinyl years and years ago and recently picked up the remaster on CD. The intuition between these musicians is on a level with Trane s quartet and Miles Quintet of the 60 s. That s quite a statement if you think about it, but it s true! It s a shame this was really just a pickup band made up of some of ECM s finest talent - probably their greatest rhythm section. Then again, this is the rhythm section that played in Miles band for a couple of years (see The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions) It s a shame it couldn t last and tour but with Jarrett on the keyboards, how could it?If you are a fan of Miles last great quintet with Hancock, Carter, Shorter, and Williams - especially ESP - then you are going to love this session.This is a fantastic recording, very cool and yet it has that unmistakeable ECM-ness about it. Buy buy buy!
Fantastic group interplay - I am a huge Kenny Wheeler fan, and this is my favourite album of his, along with Angel Song (although they are very different).I will not say any more about Kenny, because it is all covered below, I would just like to highlight the exquisite playing of the rhythm section. DeJohnette plays very freely, in fact, if you could hear what he is playing isolated from the others, you would have trouble discerning a pulse most of the time. Dave Holland is, as always, very alert, and responds to the soloist all the time (incidentally, Dave is also a great composer, if you liked this CD you should try some of his recordings as leader - Extended Play: Live at Birdland is a good place to start). Keith Jarrett is magnificent on this CD - his solo passage on Heyoke is great, just like a short version of his solo concerts with the twenty minute two-chord vamps taken away. His playing on the whole CD is astonishing, in my opinion his best playing on record (and I own a lot of Jarrett).Overall, a great CD, with four musicians really listening and responding to each other.
A New Point of Departure - i.e. Masterpiece in my Pantheon - Voted John Sluggett s Top 50 Desert Island Recordings, also Voted into John Sluggett s Pantheon of Really Good RecordsThis is a wonderful, free-wheeling (honest, no pun intended) set with very little direct sonic precedent. Andrew Hill s landmark recording, Point of Departure, is perhaps the only preceding record that points in the direction of Gnu High that I can conjure that feels so free without anger or overspent energy (free even to play INSIDE). Gnu High balances varying jazz aesthetics like a great Calder and finds itself helium-headed and immune to gravity. The compositions are likable and wryly warm with a faint dry wisp of humor (the titles tip you off).Jack DeJohnette plays inventively with a softened attack, with lots of implication, it s what I would call impressionistic drumming. Wheeler s rounded flugelhorn tone is inviting and his fleet phrasing is attractive. The active group interplay is beautifully giddy at times (not silly/comical) with surprises and there are moments when you can hear Jarrett and Dejohnette actually shouting and whooping at climactic moments. There is a self-imposed restraint but here it doesn t dull or enervate the music, it s almost like a sexual holding back in order to preempt overheating or premature...you know.The record swings but never falls into predicatable four-square, it s very modern but never grates or screams for attention to its modernity, sometimes evoking ancient modality but avoiding posing or costuming religiousity (like Pharoah Sanders or the Coltrane of OM). It s a unique and beautiful balancing act this recording it is. Can I borrow 14 bucks? I think Bill stole my copy.I am over the age of 13. Thank You.