Kenny Wheeler • David Friedman • Jasper van 't Hof - Greenhouse Fables (1992)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
John Taylor, Norma Winston, & Kenny Wheeler - Azimuth (1977)

Kenny Wheeler - Deer Wan (1978)

That album cover really is awful, huh? I suppose the actual art itself isn't so bad, but those fonts, and the overall composition? It looks like a self-help book about how bipolar depression can effect your marriage or something.

Which is a shame, because the music is positively gorgeous ambient jazz.  Wheeler's trumpet/flugelhorn, Friedman's vibraphone, and van 't Hof's piano make for beautiful, contemplative bedfellows, effortlessly combining and dispersing, allowing for a sense of dynamic and movement even as the volume rarely goes beyond a gentle murmur.

Track listing:

1. Zambon

2. Everybody's Song but My Own

3. Truvib

4. Greenhouse Fables

5. Farm

6. Salina Street

I follow to the edge of the earth

And fall off

You should also listen to:

Bill Frisell - In Line (1983)

Eberhard Weber - Pendulum (1993)

Kenny Wheeler - Deer Wan (1978)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
John Taylor, Norma Winston, & Kenny Wheeler - Azimuth (1977)

Laid-back but sprawling, stream-of-consciousness pieces, helmed by Canadian trumpeter/flugelhorn-player Kenny Wheeler, and featuring a band of ECM heavyweights -- check the tags.

Track listing:
1. Peace for Five
2. 3/4 in the Afternoon
3. Sumother Song
4. Deer Wan

Follow down

You'd also enjoy:

Barre Phillips -
Mountainscapes (1976)

Paul Motian Trio -
Le Voyage (1979)

John Taylor, Norma Winston, & Kenny Wheeler - Azimuth (1977)

Glorious ambient jazz from keyboardist John Taylor, trumpeter/flugelhorn-player Kenny Wheeler, and vocalist Norma Winstone. Lush, enveloping, transportive sounds. One of my top 10 favorite ECM records, for sure.

Track listing:
1. Sirens' Song
2. O
3. Azimuth
4. The Tunnel
5. Greek Triangle
6. Jacob

Traveling forever in the dark
Darkness into blackness
Then back
It's always black

More along these lines:

Eberhard Weber -
Fluid Rustle (1979)

Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays -
As Falls Wichita, So Falls
Wichita Falls (1982)