CD version. Gnu High was the first ECM album led by Kenny Wheeler, the Toronto-born trumpeter and flugelhornist who had long been based in England. Recorded in New York in June 1975 and released in February 1976, it brought him international recognition for his lyrical writing as much as for his playing. His partners were Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, who had all passed through Miles Davis's groups. The record remains one of the most admired in the label's early catalogue.
Wheeler, then 45, plays flugelhorn throughout, with Jarrett on piano, Holland on double bass and DeJohnette on drums. The session took place at Generation Sound Studios with Tony May as recording engineer and Manfred Eicher as producer, while Martin Wieland is credited with the mix. Wheeler wrote all three pieces as outlines for the band to open up. Holland later said the album combined "the form and the shape and the harmony of Kenny's tunes" with "this really free way of interpreting them". DeJohnette put it more briefly: "What you hear is the spontaneity of the moment".
The 22-minute Heyoke starts from a single piano chord. Then Wheeler's warm flugelhorn enters over Holland's bass and DeJohnette's ride cymbal. The theme then gives way to a long Jarrett solo that several critics count among his finest on record. Underneath, Holland and DeJohnette keep the pulse in constant motion. Smatter is a short uptempo piece that became one of Wheeler's standards. The closing Gnu Suite leaves more space, including a Holland solo after which the others return one by one.
Reviewers were enthusiastic from the start. Stereo Review wrote in 1976 that "it isn't often that one comes across an album as nearly perfect from cover to end groove as this one is". Two decades later Billboard (1997) observed that the album "has come to be a touchstone in modern jazz". German and French critics used similar terms, and several of them describe the session as Jarrett's last appearance as a sideman. For Wheeler it was the start of a long recording career at ECM.
This CD (ECM 1069) belongs to Touchstones, the series of 40 classic ECM albums reissued in card sleeves in 2008. The album was first released in 1976.
