The formation with Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn, Dave Holland on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums and Keith Jarrett on piano has only - recorded this one plate - in the summer of 1975. When it sounds, one thinks either "Fortunately!" or "What a shame!", because the disc with their short season and their only three titles (as was the halt in the LP era) has its good passages as well as their little nervigeren points. The three pieces are all composed by Kenny Wheeler. On the positive side emphasized that the balance of the instruments has succeeded. Neither is the flugelhorn as dominant such as the saxophone January Garbarek in the plates of the "European Quartet" still is the bass so heavy mixed backwards as is often the case with the later recordings of the standard trio of Jarrett. Less convincing effect that the pieces are often followed except a little loose theme hardly a common thread. In the almost 22-minute-long piece "Heyoke" For example, there is a break at around 12:00 minutes and a virtually new track begins. In "Gnu Suite" which is not much different; Only the relatively short piece "Smatter" follows a long period of musical line and a rhythm without thereby becoming boring. Basically, the four musicians harmonize but in many places of the plate very well together, so that ultimately the "Too bad!" easily outweigh that there has been no further recordings of Wheeler, Jarrett, Holland and DeJohnette. It would be a nice "Gnu Quartet" become ...
