Taking a naive listen to 3 of his compositions after a gig

(I chose this photo of Kenny Wheeler because it's right around what he would have looked like when Darcy James Argue first heard him.)

Paul Rushka's Present Past ensemble played three Kenny Wheeler compositions in their first set last night at Frankie's. The show featured Paul's band members Jon Bentley on saxophone and Tristan Paxton on guitar, plus Bernie Arai on drums.

I have two motivations in today's brief Update.

One: I've done a lot of long interviews lately and want to just listen to some music – in this case, the progressive jazz of a late Canadian icon.

Two: if I had been formally trained to write for you, I'd probably be too scared right now, because I should know more about him than I do. Sure, I've played "Everybody's Song But My Own" and listened to "Kenny's Song, Not My Own". But how much of his work have I really checked out repeatedly? Not enough.

Heck, I've never listened to Music for Large and Small Ensembles front-to-back. And when you hang out with music students, some people actually shame other people for not having listened to something yet. Apparently.

That said, I believe it's less fun to hide from finally engaging with classic records than it is to just naively jump in and actually listen for once – for the first time if need be.

So these are the three Kenny pieces that Paul Rushka's Present Past played:

"Heyoke"

The album Gnu High represents for me (Canadian) jazz school objectified. Or maybe jazz school is Gnu High personified, as in the album represents everything jazz school aspires to be.

Paul and the band played basically the first eight minutes of this track as their set opener.

"Three for D'reen"

The title suggests that there are three compositions within this one recorded track, but it's hard to say (again, naively) where they begin and end. Again, what Paul and the band played is the first part. This is emotional playing, almost languorous.

"Phoebe"

I had never heard this one before, captured here in a large ensemble. It definitely has that Kenny Wheeler thing of the melody and arrangement being accessible while everything underneath is swirling and challenging. If you make it to the end of this track, something unexpected happens.

I'm going to finally listen through these records and see where it takes me. Thanks to Paul Rushka for breaking the ice for me as he forges ahead with his own work.