November 2000

Kenny Wheeler hits it off with Jan Simons

"Dignified and youthful" was how the regional daily Turun Sanomat (27 November 2000) described Kenny Wheeler's music at the Bluestock in Turku this weekend. The veteran trumpet and flugelhorn player is on tour with the Jan Simons band, thus continuing the co-operation which began earlier this year with the recording of the CD called Answer (Silence Music 0002).

The Bluestock concert will also published as a CD. The music consisted mainly of bassist Jan Simons and tenorist Manuel Dunkel's new compositions, although some material from the Answer CD was also included. Writing in Turun Sanomat, Jarmo Wallenius noted that Wheeler adapted once again extremely well to the new music and the young musicians' style of playing.

In an earlier interview in Turun Sanomat (25 November 2000), Wheeler praised his Finnish colleagues. He said that having received a tape of Jan Simons band's music, he immediataly liked it.

"These Finnish players are not typical bebop musicians. Harmonically and melodically they think very much the same way as I do. I have been playing like this for 25 years and during this time I have played with many relatively young musicians. It has worked very well in spite of the age difference."

The other musicians playing with Wheeler were pianist Samuli Mikkonen, guitarist Niklas Winter and drummer Markku Ounaskari. Mikkonen and Ounaskari also played with Wheeler at the Vortex Jazz Bar in London last May, in one of the Polar Jazz concerts.

In the interview, Wheeler expressed some concern about jazz's status in today's cultural life.

"Jazz is insignificant compared to other forms of culture and it is not visible in television. Its appeal does not reach everyday life. In the 1980s and 1990s, jazz was for a long time relying on its past but now people are looking to the future. This is good for jazz but possibly not for its position in cultural life."

See also:

• Polar Jazz: European jazz redefined by Chris Parker

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