Kenny Wheeler

Kenny Wheeler (1930-2014)

Da Kenny Wheeler gikk bort i 2014, skrev The Guardians John Fordham bl.a. i sitt minneord:

​"The trumpet is by tradition a loud, warlike, declamatory instrument, but the art of playing it quietly goes back a long way. Bix Beiderbecke brought coolness to the instrument in the 1920s, and some of the most inspirational jazz stars have been predominantly quiet players, notably Miles Davis and Chet Baker. That select circle includes the trumpeter and flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler, Canadian-born but long resident in Britain, who has died

aged 84. Although he loved Duke Ellington, the blasting brass energies of the Kenton Orchestra and the effortless swing of Count Basie, Wheeler believed that his biggest influence as a composer was Paul Hindemith, whose harmonies sounded jazzy to him. Fascinated by Hindemith's Mathis der Maler – an opera about the Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald composed alongside a symphony – Wheeler devoted a lot of time and effort to unpicking its methods."