KENNY WHEELER — Windmill Tilter: The Story of Don Quixote (review)

KENNY WHEELER — Windmill Tilter: The Story of Don Quixote album cover

Album · 1969 · Avant-Garde Jazz

3/5 · 2011-07-07
Sean Trane

Given Wheeler’s contribution to Graham Collier’s excellent first album, I had much high expectations from the Canadian trumpet player’s debut album called Windmill Tilter and its evoking subtitle mentioning Don Quixote and its amazing artwork. Indeed, given Wheeler’s trumpet parts in Collier’s early album, he was responsible for much of the dramatic tension and suspense in the more epic track, often sounding Spanish and even hinting of sorts at Miles Sketches Of Spain, so everything pointed to something pumping the listener’s adrenaline to unreasonable levels. Alas, nothing of the sort on the present album, as we’re dealing in a fairly conventional-sounding big band, and nothing of the expected dramatics, but at least we’re left with az decent enough big band effort that could be labelled as “progressive” despite not being all that advanced to this writer’s ears. Assembling some of Britain’s better (-known) musicians, like Lowther (tp), Pyne (tb), Coe (sax), Branscombe (piano), McLaughlin (guit), and Holland (bs), some of these forming a more compact quintet for two or three tracks on the album. Of course much of the big band assembled by Wheeler is Dankworth’s own orchestra, so the tightness is guaranteed.

Starting fairly slowly on Wheeler’s flugelhorn (apparently and sadly he doesn’t touch the trumpet on WT), the tempo varies from mid-pace to semi-fast, but nothing innovative from the good old Bazsie & Ellington days, although the songwriting dares to be more involved and intense into its own depths. The two quintet tracks don’t stick out from the lot especially that a lot of them tracks segue into each other so the whole album makes a very cohesive ensemble, with no low points, but unfortunately no high points, either. No doubt that if you love your brass blowing, you’ll love this album, but if you’re more into keys and strings, you might just look elsewhere for musical orgasms, despite McL’s presence. If you’re looking for something modern, avant-garde and intense, you’re not going to find much more than traditional/standard jazz, that could almost (almost being the key word) from somewhere between the 40’s and 50‘s that certainly won’t ruffle many feather if only a single one. The performance is indeed rather convincing though, although I would’ve certainly preferred to hear Wheeler on his sharper trumpet and his duller flugelhorn.

Sooooo, don’t be fooled or mislead by the album’s title and front artwork, you won’t be listening a stunning sequel of Miles Spanish Sketches (miles away from it ;o)))), but you’ll still hear an excellent British big band jazz album, showing us that if Britain had a late start in the jazz field, they were able to give out an honest and almost-equal fight, outside the fact that they were outnumbered by their American counterparts. I often wondered if the scene had kept up its efforts, if they wouldn’t have caught up their cross-pond foes. But the advent of JR/F in the late-60’s strongly changed the cards dealt on both sides of the table.