Guitarist Barney Kessel once said that you needed two very good guitarists to sound like one very ordinary pianist. This must have been the thought that inspired Kenny Wheeler when he decided to exchange the piano for not one but two guitars on his album It Takes Two!. Wheeler, a master of the flugelhorn and trumpet, was born in Canada, and he shows a completely different side of himself with the compositions and arrangements on this record. The music of guitarists John Abercrombie and John Parricelli intertwines with that of double bassist Anders Jormin into a harmonious foundation for the lyrical melodies and improvisations of the bandleader. Wheeler, who is 78 now, has been active on the British jazz scene since the fifties; he has played together with musicians like John Dankworth, Evan Parker, Dave Holland and David Sylvian. In the years following that time, he has developed an individual style that is somewhere between two apparently irreconcilable quantities: free improvisation and impressionist lyricism, while his playing and tone can always be recognized. At the festival, Wheeler plays the music of It Takes Two! with a slightly altered line-up: Mike Walker and John Parricelli on guitar and Palle Danielson on double bass.
