Angel Song

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

The drummerless quartet album Angel Song was a commercial success for Kenny, now approaching his seventies. As ECM reached the height of its influence, this beautiful, and in many ways unexpectedly accessible recording made its mark, to critical acclaim. Once again including Dave Holland, it also featured saxophonist Lee Konitz and guitarist Bill Frisell, who had hired Kenny as a sideman for his ECM album Rambler over a decade earlier. Despite the success of Angel Song, this period would see Kenny increasingly record for other labels and marked the end of his long association with the Banff Centre. It was a fertile time of collaboration with new musical partners, marked by duo albums with pianists Paul Bley and Brian Dickinson, as well as a recording with valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer. In the late nineties, Kenny took on new representation and began a new relationship with Italian record label CAM Jazz.

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Citation

Shaw, Brian; Smart, Nick. Angel Song. 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=25561. Date accessed: 18 Jul 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.25561. Feb 2025

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