Kenny Wheeler: Deer Wan - LP 180g Vinyl

As the progressive rock era underwent disco degeneration in the last half of the 70s many of us boomers began searching. I lived in Austin at the time and started checking out Fred Bourque's jazz program on the public radio station, just to see if there was anything there--maybe "fusion jazz". I new I didn't really like "mainstream jazz". I could appreciate the technical virtuousity, but it generally didn't make me feel anything deep. Maybe I just didn't know what to listen to. Sitting alone listening late one evening, 3/4 in the Afternoon came on, and I felt the amazing emotional power of the Wheeler sound. By the end of Ralph Towner's solo, the haunting beauty of the piece had raised goosebumps, and I was a changed being. I waited to hear Bourque identify the tune, wrote it down and found Deer Wan at the store the next day. I didn't know if there was anything else on the album I would like--but I strongly felt there would be. This album began my exploration of that rich ECM jazz era. Agree with the other reviewer, a masterpiece from that ECM era. If you can listen to 3/4 in the Afternoon alone, late at night, and not get a little teary, you might want to look for professional help.

I became acquainted with this album about 15 years ago, and I fell in love with it, the music is just amazing. I heard so many known voices, and when I went to check who was playing, it was an all-star ECM session. Unbelievable.

This album, recorded 38 years ago, could almost be an ECM Jazz Giants album, if there was such a thing. Wheeler’s lyrical trumpet and flugelhorn and his intelligent, sometimes lyrical, other times driving writing; the keening sax of Jan Garbarek, who has seldom soloed with more fervor and intelligence than he does here; John Abercrombie filling in for the absent piano in ensemble and (like Garbarek) delivering some of his best –and most lyrical—solo work here; the intelligent, driving, complex bass work of Dave Holland and the always intelligent, subtly changing, perpetually forcing drumming of Jack DeJohnette. And then, on one cut (“3/4 in the Afternoon”) you have Ralph Towner soloing on twelve-string guitar. It’s just an exceptional album. Of the four pieces on the album, all by Wheeler, the first (“Peace for Five”) and third (“Sumother Song”) are suites: indeed, “Sumother” is three separate song lines, tied together loosely but succeeding each other more as intentional changes in mood and tempo than as a continuous entity. “3/4” is lyrical and short. The other three pieces are boppish and long. You will love the ensemble and solo work in this album, but take a moment to appreciate the arranging. As Wheeler has shown on other albums (e.g. his Music for Large and Small Ensembles, 2000), he is a very subtle and talented composer and arranger, who successfully fuses the drive of late bop with a lyric style of his own. This album has had a good reputation from the start: listening to it 38 years on, it hasn’t aged a bit. You can’t say that about a lot of albums from that time.