Kenny Wheeler IV: Mediaevilsms

Kenny Wheeler Brass Ensemble - Going for Baroque
From A Long Time Ago: ECM 1691 [Buy]

Thierry Péala with Kenny Wheeler - 546
From Inner Traces - A Kenny Wheeler Songbook: naive Y266 102 [Buy]

When you track down the (very rare) interviews with Kenny Wheeler, one of the things you learn is that Mr Wheeler is very interested in early music - that is, the music of Western Europe of the middle ages and the Renaissance. And sometimes this interest manifests itself in his compositions.

Here are two examples - Going for Baroque is fairly self-explanatory, with contrapuntal horn lines eventually dissolving into a more familar "wheelerian" harmonies. 546 is a short composition for jazz ensemble and vocalists based on the form and harmonies of Elizabethan English choral music.