With the commissioning of the Wheeler Suite, premiered here, the SNJO has continued the rapid progress made over the past year, establishing itself under Tommy Smith's leadership as not just a unit capable of interpreting the music of jazz's greatest composers - past and present - but of moving from era to era with remarkable assurance.
Fresh from a triumphant concert of Duke Ellington's music the previous night in Inverness, it must have been more than a little galling for them to play their first
specially-written piece to a southern capital audience approximately one third that of the northern capital.
They really do deserve better support, as does the composer, the quietly masterful Kenny Wheeler, who responded to his commission with a lucidly written work, coaxing a warm, mature performance from what is still, after all, a young band.
From his opening sequence with pianist Brian Kellock, Wheeler, concentrating on the mellower flugelhorn rather than trumpet, established a feeling of wistful nostalgia which he sustained throughout the best part of an hour, punctuating it with tempo changes, some gorgeous brassy swells and song lines from the ever-apposite Norma Winston, but maintaining a soundtrack-like sense of continuity.
There was room for some fine soloing, most notably from Wheeler himself, Laura Macdonald on soprano saxophone, and Gregor Clark and Eddie Severn in a trumpet/flugelhorn duet/duel, but this was used to move the piece along rather than satisfy any egos.
If, as a whole, it didn't constitute Wheeler's most ambitious, widest ranging work, it still contained the essential hallmarks - memorable, neatly-turned themes and a strong sense of resolution. It's replayed tonight at the RSAMD in Glasgow and merits attention.
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