On The Way To Two

Also available on 180 gram vinyl LP.

From the CAM JAZZ vaults, a gem recording by Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor. The Canadian trumpeter had a long-standing recording activity on this label, often sharing this journey with Taylor. “On The Way To Two” is a duet album recorded in 2005, featuring 10 songs over a total 45 minutes of stunning music. Complex themes alternate with short improvised passages, as proof of that natural, special feeling that bound the two musicians. Sadly and unfortunately, while this CD was being pressed, John Taylor suddenly passed away.  Before Taylor left us, he wrote in the liner notes to this album, as a virtual remark to Wheeler, the following:  “It was a privilege and joy to play with you for most of my life, and I wish you were here now to listen to this music again with me”.  The opening track is “Canter #2”, the second episode of a mantra featuring many of the two musicians’ albums (try finding the different “Canter” interpretations in the other Wheeler and Taylor albums). Following this is a superb “Fedora”, with the trumpet and piano intertwining as naturally as only two musicians so close to each other could do. “Sketch No. 1” is the first of three moments of sheer improvisation that emerge between tracks, during which Taylor and Wheeler pursue new expressive nuances of their instruments. And then “Who Knows?”, “Fortune's Child” and “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing” show and celebrate the empathy that the two musicians have managed to build and develop over the years.  

DownBeat Magazine: Best Album (2016)

Recorded and mixed in Ludwigsburg on 21 - 22 March 2005 at Bauer Studios Recording & mixing engineer Johannes Wohlleben

Cover photo by Andrea Boccalini - Photos by Peter Bastian

Liner notes by Brian Morton