Book review - Song For Someone: The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler (Brian Shaw and Nick Smart)

Released in time (almost) for its subject’s 95th anniversary, this exemplary biography covers a lot of ground and covers it well. It manages to take in its stride the vast amount of work Wheeler undertook in a long career, and to cast light on the individuality of his playing and writing styles.

The authors describe Kenny’s trajectory from his Canadian background to immigrant status in early-1950s UK to his eventual worldwide recognition, including in the US.

Starting from his gradual absorption into our local scene, notably with John Dankworth, he not only did mountains of anonymous commercial session-work (examples are given) but at the same time explored the nascent British free-jazz scene. This further increased his musical independence, and led to working simultaneously with Anthony Braxton and the ECM label, both to significant effect.

At the same time, as someone who could have easily been a perennial sideman in whichever field he chose, he nevertheless created a series of landmark albums such as Windmill Tilter, Song For Someone, Music For Large and Small Ensembles and the recently reissued Angel Song. These are all granted detailed description, but so also are many other recordings and lesser-known live appearances with numerous line-ups that have been preserved.

In addition, Wheeler’s frequently enigmatic tune-titles are deciphered, as well as the fact that many themes were resurrected in different contexts but with different titles.

In amongst all this information, the book manages to keep track of his involvements with family (both UK and Canadian) as well as his long-time loyalty to collaborators such as Dave Holland, John Taylor, Norma Winstone, Evan Parker and even session stalwart Derek Watkins. All of these and more are quoted at manageable length from interviews done over a period of 10 years and, through these contributions, light is cast on what appeared to be Kenny’s lifelong insecurity and self-doubt manifesting in personal interactions as acute shyness, only to be contradicted by his musical confidence and assertiveness.

Initially, your reviewer was surprised there was no formal discographical listing (such as Equinox provided in its books on Tubby Hayes and Stan Tracey) but, even if excluding his commercial work, this would have been huge. More importantly perhaps, even the fairly obscure sessions are given detailed descriptions in the text. What is particularly appreciated is that the authors, both of them noted trumpeters, manage to convey verbally the effect of Wheeler’s playing and what makes it remarkable, both from a musical and a technical viewpoint. All written in a language that won’t challenge the understanding of non-performers, and which certainly merits the appreciation of both lay readers and fellow musicians alike.