The Guardian has reported the death of Kenny Wheeler. There have been many tributes so far this morning. ECM’s Manfred Eicher and Steve Lake have also written on the ECM website about the release of Wheeler’s Abbey Road recordings, made last year. “The news of Kenny Wheeler’s death, at the age of 84, reached us just two weeks after we’d finished work on the mixing and mastering of his new album, which was recorded at London’s Abbey Road last Christmas. The session itself was inspirational, a very frail Kenny rousing himself to play creative and touching flugelhorn improvisations in a programme of nine of his fine songs, surrounded and supported by some of his favourite players: Stan Sulzmann on tenor sax, John Parricelli on guitar, Chris Laurence on bass, Martin France on drums. Three of the band were able to join us for the mix of an album which was to have marked a return to ECM for Kenny after some years away.” The statement also indicates that a release date for the album has not yet been finalised, but early-2015 “seems likely.”