Until now, most of Kenny Wheeler’s music has been conceived instrumentally and he has had the good fortune to have Norma Winstone’s lyrics.
This time he sets texts by Lewis Carroll, Stevie Smith and WB Yeats to music and alongside the 24 wonderful voices of the Vocal Project conducted by Pete Churchill he has drawn in the top names of Nikki Iles (piano) and Mark Lockheart (saxophones).
Opening track Humpty Dumpty sets the standard for the 11-part suite, a sumptuous melody voiced by the choir with a full-voiced tenor saxophone solo.
On Breughel, Wheeler’s trumpet is joyfully lyrical.
At close on 70 minutes the album remains riveting throughout and Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass has a sectional structure, moving from a slow, gently meandering melody into a Latin rhythm for solos from Wheeler and Lockheart, before ending in a conversation between the two horns and Norma Winstone’s wordless vocal.
Mirrors marks a high point in Kenny Wheeler’s long and illustrious career.
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