As both player and composer, Kenny Wheeler, who died last September, was unique. This is his last recording. Like all his music, it has a touch of melancholy to it, but it’s a tender, reticent kind of melancholy, relieved by brave, perky little tunes in unexpected places. He plays the warm-toned flugelhorn on all nine tracks, which casts a glow over the whole performance. The other musicians – Stan Sulzmann, John Parricelli, Chris Laurence and Martin France - are seasoned habitués of Wheeler’s musical world and move around in it with ease and subtlety.