Kenny Wheeler, Paul Bley

Kenny Wheeler left Toronto for London in 1952. Paul Bley left Montreal for New York the following year. The Canadian Encyclopedia lists Touché among the handful of records Bley made with compatriots for Justin Time in the 1990s, after Jane Bunnett, Herbie Spanier and Sonny Greenwich, and it is the only time the two recorded as a duo.

One day at Studio Tempo in Montreal, 19 July 1996, produced by Jim West and recorded by Ian Terry. Thirteen tracks, most under five minutes, in strict alternation: Wheeler's Presto, Bley's Ouvre, Wheeler's Fausto, and so on to Bley's Sortie. Seven by Wheeler, six by Bley. Wheeler moves between trumpet and flugelhorn.

Wheeler's tunes are the melodic ones, with the wide intervals and the bittersweet harmony of his ECM records. Bley's are frames for improvisation, and he plays them the way he played everything after 1970: pauses, a phrase left hanging, a blues fragment. A trumpet with no rhythm section behind it has nowhere to hide; the record is about how Wheeler handles that. Andrew Jones wrote the notes.

Japanese CD edition from Solid's Justin Time series.