Song for Someone - The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler - Brian Shaw

Song for Someone - The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler - Brian Shaw

The Imminent Immigrant

Song for Someone - The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler - Brian Shaw

Brian Shaw [+-]
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Brian Shaw is an active performer, arranger, and educator known for his versatility. He is one of the few trumpet players in the world equally comfortable in early music, orchestral, jazz, and commercial settings on modern and period instruments. He has released four albums as a soloist and leader, and holds principal positions the Dallas Winds, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and Spire Baroque Orchestra, and is a frequent guest principal trumpet in American symphony orchestras. A former Banff Centre student of Kenny Wheeler’s, Brian is a passionate advocate for his music and published a book of his solo transcriptions in 2000. He regularly teaches Baroque and modern trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and was Professor of Trumpet and Jazz Studies at Louisiana State University for 15 years. He lives near Seattle with his wife Lana, their sons Thomas and Elliot, and their dog, Ernie.
Nick Smart [+-]
Royal Academy of Music
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Nick Smart is Head of Jazz at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and an internationally renowned jazz educator, trumpeter and musical director. He has been the recipient of the prestigious UK All Party Parliamentary Jazz Award for Education, is a Professor of the University of London, and Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music where he also completed his PhD. Throughout the UK he remains one of the leading jazz musicians on the scene, continuing to record and tour with his own projects as well as being in regular demand as a sideman to players of all generations. Nick was also a close associate of Kenny Wheeler, having played in his last big band and with many of his regular colleagues, and he has been instrumental in keeping Kenny's musical legacy alive in masterclasses and performances around the world.

Description

Kenny arrived in London during the “Great Smog” of 1952. The professional music scene in London at the time was centered around Archer Street, where players gathered in hopes of getting work in dance bands and night clubs. Following a short-lived job at the Post Office, the musicians he encountered and his short stay in a rooming house serendipitously led to him meeting his future wife, Doreen Yeend, over the telephone. He had early musical associations with the successful bands of Roy Fox, Carl Barriteau, Buddy Featherstonhaugh, and Tommy Whittle, with whom he would make his first professional recording. This period was followed by the birth of the Wheelers’ two children, Mark and Louann. Kenny embarked on a tour with Woody Herman before eventually getting his big break: an invitation from John Dankworth, one of the most successful English bandleaders of the time.

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Citation

Shaw, Brian; Smart, Nick. The Imminent Immigrant. Song for Someone - The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. Feb 2025. ISBN 9781781792193. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=25556. Date accessed: 24 Nov 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.25556. Feb 2025

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