These young musicians, who are incredibly good, are joined by several older ones... Wheeler’s legacy is safe.
This Grammy-nominated album, recorded at Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 2024, celebrates the legacy of one of the great original voices in contemporary jazz. It is the culmination of a project which saw Academy students collaborate with the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and legends of the UK Jazz scene.
The idea to record these works in collaboration with the Frost School of Music emerged after a student exchange programme between the Academy’s and Frost’s Jazz Departments established a connection between the two institutions. Nick Smart, the Academy’s Head of Jazz, and Frost School jazz professor John Daversa met in 2018 when performing some of Wheeler’s works at the University of Miami. They discussed and planned a Kenny Wheeler recording project with students from both departments, originally scheduled for June 2020.
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Following the postponement caused by the disruption of the pandemic, in June 2024 the two departments finally combined to realise the project, rehearsing the music of Wheeler’s lost scores at the Academy, before performing the works in a concert at London’s Vortex Jazz Club. They then went on to record at the iconic Abbey Road Studios alongside saxophonist Evan Parker, jazz vocalist Norma Winstone and many other eminent jazz musicians. This project is testimony to the regular opportunities for Academy students to collaborate on an international level, take part in artistic partnerships of the highest standard and work alongside renowned musical artists.
Most of Wheeler’s early works on this recording have not been heard since they were originally aired as part of the BBC sessions in the early 1970s. Nick Smart helped to acquire the Kenny Wheeler archive into the Academy’s Collections in 2012 and unearthed, archived and catalogued many of the scores for these early works.
Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores
Kenny Wheeler is considered one of the most influential figures in contemporary jazz. Born in Toronto in 1930, Wheeler moved to the UK in 1952 and by the 1960s had become highly regarded in the London scene, performing alongside improvisers such as John Stevens, Evan Parker, Dave Holland and Derek Bailey. Nick Smart, who was a close friend of Wheeler’s during the later stage of his life, writes that: ‘Kenny was very shy, full of self-doubt and self-deprecating. But paradoxically, he also had this kind of inner strength that can’t come from a place of reticence, but the humility bordering on self-doubt was absolutely real for him.
‘The relationship between Kenny’s life story and the development of his artistic voice is in many respects the central thread of his legacy. Kenny’s choices and decisions were repeatedly formed as much by how he felt about the people he was playing with as the music he was playing.’
On the significance of reviving and recording the lost scores heard on this album, Nick Smart explains: ‘Kenny frequently cited the importance of his first BBC broadcasts as a bandleader in providing an outlet for his own music. A lot of the music from these sessions has not been heard since, but it clearly reveals the story of his evolution as a composer.’
The release of this album coincided with the publication of Song for Someone: The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler, a biography co-authored by Nick Smart and Brian Shaw.
Nothing short of a remarkable... All these tracks from Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores by the Royal Academy of Music Jazz Orchestra and the University of Miami’s Frost Jazz Orchestra have a great many merits.
Until now, these 11 compositions only existed as one-off broadcasts. Fifty years on, they remain fresh.
The result is a triumph and a truly worthy addition to the canon of Wheeler’s recorded music.
The real magic of Some Days are Better comes from the energy and depth the young musicians of the Academy and Frost ensembles bring to the table. Their passion, commitment, and feel for Wheeler’s music infuses these scores with fresh life.
Some Days Are Better is a showcase for the versatility and excellence of the Royal Academy of Music Jazz Orchestra, the Frost Jazz Orchestra and the soloists... Ten years after his death, the music Kenny Wheeler wrote earlier in his career is as fresh and vibrant as it was when it first aired on BBC.
For me, this album is both an essential document and a masterpiece. When you hear the passion with which each musician imbues their performance, the least one can do is place this recording among the ranks of “Indispensable Albums".