Kenny Wheeler

This box gathers the five albums Kenny Wheeler recorded for Soul Note between 1986 and 1994, all produced in Milan by Giovanni Bonandrini. Only two are under the trumpeter's own name: Flutter By, Butterfly, by his quintet, and the quartet record All The More. On the other three he is a partner or a guest of Italian musicians. He plays in the quartet of saxophonist Claudio Fasoli, in a group shared with bassist Paolino Dalla Porta and in front of the European Music Orchestra. Heard together, they trace eight years of his work with the Italian scene, on flugelhorn as much as on trumpet.

Welcome, the earliest, was taped at Barigozzi Studio in Milan on March 26, 1986 by Fasoli on tenor and soprano, with bassist J.-F. Jenny-Clark and drummer Daniel Humair; all eight pieces are Fasoli's, from the ninety-second title track to the eight minutes of Zen. Flutter By, Butterfly followed at the same studio on May 26 and 27, 1987, with Stan Sulzmann on saxophones and flute, pianist John Taylor, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Bill Elgart, and came out in 1988. Tales (May 1993) is a quartet with Dalla Porta, pianist Stefano Battaglia and Elgart again, built on Dalla Porta's tunes such as Kandinsky and Mbira, with Battaglia's eleven-minute Vocal at the end. All The More was recorded on October 31 and November 1, 1993, with Taylor, Furio Di Castri on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums. Wheeler wrote six of its eight pieces, among them Mark Time and Kind Of Bill, and the album waited until 1997 for release. Guest, made in January and February 1994 at the FARM studio in Cessalto, puts him inside Fasoli's large orchestra, playing his own The Sweet Yakity Waltz and W.W. next to two pieces by Manfred Schoof.

The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note, CAM Jazz box BXS 1037 from 2015: five CDs, each in a card replica of the original sleeve, remastered from the original master tapes, reissuing albums first released between 1987 and 1997.