//

Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone,
London Vocal Project, Kings Place, London, Saturday

The release of Mirrors back in February felt like a significant moment. It joined the dots between the frequently very abstract music of Kenny Wheeler and more figurative vocal jazz in a remarkably transparent way. It sounded unique and still does after months of playing. Harmonies from the record have become earworms, the little emphatic vocal inflections and instrumental flourishes pleasurably memorable. There’s no artifice or overthinking involved: it seemed a truly organic affair yet laboriously conceived. London Vocal Project director Pete Churchill in the notes to the album, released by Edition, explained that ‘Mirrors’ was a commission for five solo voices in the first place, and with Norma Winstone and Kenny Wheeler, they duly performed it at the 1998 Berlin Jazz Festival. After further trials of the material with various college choirs and then, with the London Vocal Project five years ago, Churchill realised he “knew ‘Mirrors’ had finally found a home.” The poetry of Stevie Smith (1902-1971) lies at its heart, and Wheeler’s music has meshed with it perfectly. But it’s not just Smith whose work forms the text for the vocals element, interpreted by the 25-strong LVP, with Wheeler joining on flugelhorn, Winstone the featured solo singer, pianist Nikki Iles, Polar Bear’s Mark Lockheart on saxophones, bassist Steve Watts, and drummer James Maddren. Besides settings of Smith’s work, a highlight of which is the delightful ‘Black March’ (‘I have a friend/At the end/Of the world’), there are settings of Lewis Carroll, and briefly WB Yeats. Delight is a word that constantly springs to mind, an echo of ‘I sing this song for your delight’ on ‘Humpty Dumpty’ at the beginning. The singing is lovely throughout, ethereal, and endowed with a life force all of its own. Somehow everything manages to remain understated yet has impact, the unique charm of the album. Mirrors is still a further example, after The Long Waiting, of the extraordinary late-period flowering of Kenny Wheeler’s artistry. There’s a section on ‘Through the Looking Glass’ when Wheeler, Lockheart and Winstone interact spontaneously to tremendous effect, but it’s just one instance of the spirit on display on this remarkable album that live in Hall one at Kings Place will surely, Humpty Dumpty-like, delight that bit more. MB
Tickets www.kingsplace.co.uk