Kenny Wheeler Legacy Project
- Submitting institution
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The Royal Academy of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- RAM021
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- Portfolio including exhibition evidence and concert recording
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
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- Year
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- In 2012, the Academy acquired the archive of jazz musician Kenny Wheeler. This project began with the curation of a year-long exhibition on Wheeler’s life and music in the Academy Museum that ran from April 2013 to April 2014. I selected materials from the collection and borrowed additional items from the Wheeler family to convey a biographical narrative. Curating the exhibition was the starting point for an ongoing body of research, including a forthcoming cowritten biography and a PhD thesis focussing on the most critical period of Wheeler’s emergence as a unique artist. I have undertaken a number of residencies at leading institutions, including the New England Conservatory and the University of Miami, as well as at conservatoires across Europe, performing concerts of Wheeler’s music and giving talks on my biographical research. Although the exhibition opened in 2013 many of the associated events took place during 2014.
This portfolio includes evidence of the Wheeler Exhibition and a recording of a January 2020 concert with the Academy Big Band exploring material from the archive. This concert recreates seminal big band music from Wheeler's first outings as a leader in his own right and includes a body of work that has not been heard since the original BBC broadcasts nearly fifty years ago. To recreate this work, we used copies of Wheeler’s hand-written scores and collaborated with three guest soloists who were part of the original Wheeler line-up. This event was also to have been recorded at Abbey Road Studios in June 2020 (delayed for Covid-19 reasons). The overarching aim is to highlight the significance of Wheeler’s legacy on the evolution of jazz, and to demonstrate ways of utilising his archive to recreate lesser-known works.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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