Kenny Wheeler, Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette Gnu High

Astonishing 1975 Jazz Quartet Album on Vinyl LP!
Features Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland & Jack DeJohnette!
Part of ECM's New Audiophile Vinyl Series: Luminessence!
Tracking Angle Rated 9/10 Music, 8/10 Sonics!
TAS Rated 5/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the October 2023 Issue of The Absolute Sound!
Luminessence, ECM's new audiophile vinyl reissue series, is a kaleidoscope, shedding light on the jewels of the label's deep catalogue in elegant, high-quality editions. The hallmarks of the series: original and evocative music, imaginatively played and sensitively produced. The recordings underline the scope and variety of ECM's world of sound and the LPs are presented in different formats.
The series features albums that have changed perceptions of creative music making, albums now heralded as classics.
Gnu High was trumpeter/flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler's first for ECM, and Keith Jarrett's last session as a sideman: both deliver astonishing improvisations in a highly interactive quartet with Holland and DeJohnette, and Wheeler's writing is captivating.
A vinyl reissue, in our new audiophile Luminessence series, for Kenny Wheeler’s sensational ECM leader debut. Recorded in New York in 1975, and produced by Manfred Eicher, Gnu High brought Canadian trumpeter Wheeler to a new level of international acclaim, for both his impassioned playing and his profoundly lyrical writing. Here Kenny is fronting an extraordinary quartet, with Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, all masterful improvisers who had shaped their intuitive collective understanding as members of Miles Davis’s groups. “What you hear,” says Jack DeJohnette, “is the spontaneity of the moment.” Dave Holland notes that Gnu High “had this wonderful combination of the form and the shape and the harmony of Kenny’s tunes but then this really free way of interpreting them.” The album’s gatefold sleeve includes new liner notes by Kenny’s friend, colleague and biographer Nick Smart.
"Wheeler plays flugelhorn exclusively on Gnu High. The combination of his beautiful compositions and the seamless interplay and improvisation of four elite musicians at the top of their game, makes for thrilling listening. Wheeler's soaring tone and exquisite technique, beautiful phrasing and innovative melodic choices; the way Jarrett's ecstatic piano weaves seamlessly in and out of Wheeler's compositions, the very elastic swing and sway of Holland and DeJohnette: Just great, great music." - Jan Omdahl, Tracking Angle, Music 9/10, Sound 8/10
"The centerpiece of the record, a sidelong suite entitled 'Heyoke,' finds the quartet taking numerous detours during an extended musical journey, and the result is a performance where the whole exceeds the sum of its parts. The reissue of Gnu High was cut from the original masters, and side-by-side comparisons with my original German pressing reveal many of the same virtues: The sound is seductive, there's plenty of air between instruments, Wheeler's flugelhorn floats over the other instruments like a high-flying bird, and you hear every nuance of an unusually nimble rhythm section. If you're hearing 'Heyoke' for the first time, put your cell phone in the other room and listen all the way through—and then flip the platter." - Jeff Wilson, The Absolute Sound, October 2023, Music 5/5, Sonics 4.5/5
"a gem I'd never heard before this reissue, and it keeps giving with each repeat listen." - Mark Smotroff, Analog Planet
"Wheeler´s playing is reminiscent of Miles Davis in his pre-electric days; the tone is a bit fuller, but that ethereal lyricism is there, blending perfectly with Jarrett´s mellifluous style. Holland and DeJohnette are superb, too, their contribution by far transcending mere rhythmic support. This is a quartet I hope we hear more from, and I hope they continue to record on ECM, for part of the beauty is the technical sound. It isn´t often that one comes across an album as nearly perfect from cover to end groove as this one is." - Stereo Review, 1976
"A great moment of jazz. (...) Although the jazz scene is regularly supplied with a considerable number of new recordings, it is relatively rare to come across records that are able to captivate you from the first to the last note, on which you have nothing to complain about either musically and technically, or creatively, rhythmically or recording, and which nevertheless do not seem routine or sterile. One of these special records is the recently released ECM LP Gnu High with Kenny Wheeler, Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, a jazz music event of the first rank. Even after repeated listening, the reviewer is not less tempted to rank superlative after superlative in a description attempt. (...) Such an extent of perfect interplay in connection with the high improvisational and virtuoso skills on a record, which can be found equally in all four players, can only be found very rarely in this intensity." - Johannes Anders, Daily Gazette, 1976
"Beautiful - the soft yet technically high-class solos of Wheeler, the cool yet life-affirming improvisations of Jarrett, and all this on the foundation of probably the best rhythmists of the 70s. DeJohnette and Holland even refine the solos of their colleagues by setting counterpoints, guessing gaps and filling them in perfectly." - Peter Zettler, Audio, 1985
"Blessed by deep, lyrical composition and searching, apposite improvisations, Kenny Wheeler´s debut ECM album, „Gnu High“, has come to be a touchstone in modern jazz – a testimony to the artistic efficacy of thoroughness in conception and spontaneity in execution." - Billboard, 1997
"This is how ECM, which before the era of the CD was distinguished by the extraordinary quality of its pressings (not to mention the aesthetics of the covers), launches a new collection of vinyl reissues of treasures from its fabulous catalog and named after a ‘house’ classic by Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek: Luminessence. As usual, Manfred Eicher has left nothing to chance: original covers sumptuously reproduced, exceptional sound and presage (the analog masters of the time have been used), gatefold sleeves (the ’pockets that open'), liner notes, everything is there. [...] In 1975, Kenny Wheeler, 45, had only two albums to his credit [...] ’Gnu High', recorded in New York, did a lot for his international reputation, which until then had not gone beyond the borders of England, where this native of Toronto had been settled for a long time. Alongside him, Keith Jarrett was on the piano for his final appearance as sideman, Dave Holland on double bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. [...] Kenny Wheeler was at the top of his game, distilling his deeply delectable sound with a flugelhorn, using with mastery his phrasing without asperity and his science of subtly complex sentences. Served by an exceptional sound recording‘ 'Gnu High' deserves to be called a masterpiece." - Étienne Dorsay, Jazz Magazine
"ECM’s new Luminessence series of audiophile vinyl releases from their esteemed back catalogue is a class act all round: thick cardboard gatefold sleeves featuring freshly commissioned liner notes accompany satisfyingly heavy platters whose sound quality is every bit as good as we are entitled to expect from a label with a reputation for crystalline clarity. […] Kenny Wheeler’s ’Gnu High’ is a gold classic from 1976 with a nonpareil band of Keith Jarrett on piano (his last date as a sideman), Dave Holland on double bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. As Nick Smart’s strikingly insightful notes reveal, this was also trumpeter Wheeler’s breakthrough recording following a period of restless experiment, and his first as a leader for ECM in what was to become one of the great recording careers of both the label and jazz in general. […] ‘Gnu High’ is all of a piece: beautifully apt and emotive Wheeler melodies structured over an extended Side One suite, ‘Heyoke’, and Side Two’s ’Smatter’ and ’Gnu Suite’, and played with dizzying improvisatory freedom and rhythmic bounce by the superstar band. Jarrett’s extended solo on ‘Heyoke’ is among his best ever, while Holland and DeJohnette combine to produce a constantly shifting pulse for Wheeler’s pure-voiced flugelhorn to float over, centring the music with his inimitable sense of melancholy." - Phil Johnson, London Jazz News
"Wheeler had written the framework of three pieces, of which ‘Heyoke’ was to become a 20-minute epic, in which Jarrett's sublime piano playing in particular takes your breath away. At this point, there was tenderness in Jarrett's game, like absolute anarchy. The result, in combination with Kenny Wheeler's onomatopoeic approach, formed a unit that is difficult to perforate, the passages between the solos of the four protagonists sound so cohesive. That 'Smatter', the opener on the B-side, would become the Wheeler standard, you can hear the uptempo phrase already on the first run. [...] The ’Gnu Suite’ is followed by another composition with many blanks, in which, as DeJohnette says, 'there was a lot to discover, because everyone could choose what to do next.' Wheeler's ECM debut lives through the collision of experience and curiosity. The energy produced by this process has the same temperature today as in the record summer of 1975." - Carsten Sandkämper, Mint
"There is something strangely magical about the music here, which may also result from the amazement at the opportunity that ECM has created with these improvisational and top-class accompanying musicians. Dazzling. The sound quality does the rest. A mandatory purchase!" - Sebastian Meissner, Sounds and Books
"Jazz rarely gets closer to perfection than it does on ‘Gnu High’, and it has never sounded finer than on this ‘Luminessence’ pressing." - Chris May, All About Jazz
"Recorded in New York in 1975, ‘Gnu High’ was Canadian trumpeter Kenny Wheeler’s sensational ECM debut. It remains to this day one of the label’s finest releases. ‘Gnu High’ brought Wheeler to a new level of international acclaim, for both his impassioned playing and his profoundly lyrical writing. Here he fronts an extraordinary quartet, with Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, all masterful improvisers who had shaped their intuitive collective understanding as members of Miles Davis’s groups. […] I’d forgotten just how wonderful this album is. It’s been a good few years since last giving it a spin and to hear it now as an audiophile release is a double whammy of aural magnificence. The brilliance of the music is perfectly matched by the clarity, depth, and warmth of the sound." - Mike Gates, UK Vibe
"Kenny Wheeler's ’Gnu High', recorded in June 1975 and released in 1976, marked the Canadian trumpeter and flugelhornist's entry into ECM. It was also the last appearance of superstar pianist Keith Jarrett as a sideman. Wheeler had written all three tracks, including the LP-side-filling ‘Heyoke’. The bandleader with his clear, often melancholic tone had deviated from his avant-garde roots and also offered Jarrett, bassist Dave Holland and the fantastic drummer Jack DeJohnette driving, lyrical themes and the spaces for extravagant, but never lengthy improvisations. [...] The music is timelessly great." - Lothar Brandt, Audio
"When a label that has been known to always strive for the very best sound for its recordings since its Genesis announces an audiophile reissue series, the expectations are naturally high. [...] Kenny Wheeler's ’Gnu High’ and Naná Vasconcelos’ ’Saudades’ open the round dance. And the first seconds of ’Heyoke’ from the first album are perfect for making an inspiring first impression: within a few seconds, Keith Jarrett's opening piano chord is followed by the familiar, warm sound of Wheeler's flugelhorn, the solid depth of Dave Holland's double bass and the defined attack of Jack DeJohnette's ride cymbal. [...] The soundscape of this album, which has always been high-resolution, crystal clear up to the highest treble and deepest bass, is made accessible to us anew here. The spatiality that comes to us from the loudspeakers takes us into the farthest corners of this music." - Xavier Plus, Concerto
"This record was released almost five decades ago and the music has lost none of its magic in terms of content and effect to this day. In this respect, it is only logical and should be a real joy for all ‘late-born’ that ECM opens its new audiophile vinyl reissue series Luminessence with the same Wheeler debut recording. 'Gnu High' is one of the really rare recordings in which Keith Jarrett can be heard outside the haze circle of Charles Lloyd and shortly afterwards Miles Davis as a sideman. Jarrett uses his virtuoso art sensitively here and shines with provocative, differentiated improvisations. He accompanies serenely and plays in a structured way in his solos against every larmoyant transience. Canadian trumpeter Kenny Wheeler chose bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette to complete this magnificent quartet. Both of them had already played together with Jarrett in Miles Davis bands and fascinate here too with their rhythmic finesse and exciting balance, as far as group style is concerned. Wheeler himself impresses with his clear and melancholic approach to trumpet and flugelhorn. He gives the music a melodic radiance, surprises in the three wonderful, own compositions but also with shrill, piercing attacks, as well as long-line longing intonations. In this maturity and this claim to eternity, ‘Gnu High’ belongs in a series of recordings that has opened extra doors to the understanding of the ‘new’ jazz, the acoustic aftershocks of which can still be heard today." - Jörg Konrad, Kultkomplott
"Long rated a pearl of post-bop jazz, Wheeler’s famous quartet session with Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette is here reissued on premium vinyl in what ECM calls its new audiophile ‘Luminessence’ series. Great sound and sturdy gatefold packaging – which does full justice to Tadayuki Naito’s original cover photograph – are complemented by a fine text from trumpeter Nick Smart, head of jazz at the Royal Academy of Music and friend, colleague and biographer of Wheeler (1930–2014). Playing glorious flugelhorn throughout, Wheeler was 45 when the (largely) extensive suites of ‘Gnu High’ were recorded in New York in the summer of 1975. […] The result remains one of the finest group recordings in all jazz, the ever-flowing music projecting an exemplary plasticity of poetic, even painterly, expression. Unmissable!" - Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal

• 180g Vinyl
• Luminessence Series
• Audiophile High Quality Pressing
• From The Original Analog Tapes
• Recorded at Generation Sound Studios, New York, June 1975
• Gatefold Jacket
• Made in Germany

• Kenny Wheeler, flugelhorn
• Keith Jarrett, piano
• Dave Holland, double bass
• Jack DeJohnette, drums