Joel Harrison - The Wheel (Deluxe Edition) (2025) [Hi-Res]

Joel Harrison’s The Wheel: Deluxe Edition (AGS Recordings) brings renewed light to one of the guitarist and composer’s most adventurous and overlooked works. Originally released in 2008 on Intuition (Germany) and Innova (USA), The Wheel was Harrison’s bold attempt to fuse jazz and classical traditions on equal footing—a vision he had been chasing since his teenage discovery of Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Piano Trio, his immersion in the Third Stream concepts of Gunther Schuller, and his studies with Ran Blake and Allaudin Mathieu.

“I wanted to reconcile my appreciation of composers such as Copland, Ives, Bill Monroe, George Russell, and Gil Evans,” Harrison recalls. “With this music I broke through in some way; it was a new era for my writing and conception. Immodestly I believe The Wheel stands out in a small but important field—where composers blend improvisation and extensive notation in long form pieces.”

Unlike most jazz/classical hybrids that subordinate strings to background parts, Harrison’s conception placed the string writing at the heart of each movement, with improvisation radiating outward throughout the entire ensemble. He recruited violinists Todd Reynolds and Christian Howes—both equally at home in jazz and contemporary classical idioms—alongside violist Caleb Burhans and cellist Wendy Sutter, two of the most accomplished interpreters of new music. The ensemble was completed by saxophonist David Binney, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, bassist Lindsey Horner, and drummer Dan Weiss, each adding formidable interpretive power. Astonishingly, the suite was recorded in just a day and a half.

Though praised in some corners, The Wheel slipped quickly from view. Harrison now regards it as a milestone: “In the 26 records I’ve released it occupies a unique place in my heart. I want people to remember it.” For this deluxe edition, Dave Darlington has remixed the album with new clarity and urgency, uncovering buried details and even reshaping the final elegy, “In Memoriam: Dana Brayton,” into the definitive ending Harrison had always sought.

The six-movement work traverses a wide emotional spectrum. “Blues Circle” layers a West African–inflected five-beat groove under a mournful blues, exploding into surging swing and fiery solos from Alessi and Binney before returning to its haunting refrain. “We Have Been the Victims of a Broken Promise,” named after Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” bears a solemn charge, while “Watch the Future Roll By” erupts with relentless forward motion. Throughout, the music demands and rewards virtuosity, from Weiss’s elastic time-keeping to Horner’s dual roles as soloist and string section ballast.

As All About Jazz noted in its original review: “Harrison’s suite transcends ‘jazz with strings’ clichés by virtue of his singular writing and a phenomenal interpretation by seasoned veterans. The Wheel is a major achievement for Harrison and one of the best records of the year, regardless of genre.”

This edition is remixed by Dave Darlington who brought new sonic urgency to the parts. He discovered buried details, and with digital manipulation at the end of the last movement finally brought a proper ending to the work. This movement has deep meaning for Harrison, as it is an elegy for a composer friend who died in 2005.

Blues Circle (Track 2) exemplifies the wide reach of this music, a W. African-based 5 beat groove in the strings undergirds a mournful blues melody. This circular feel explodes into a surging rhythm that evolves into a swing feel and a virtuoso solo by Ralph Alessi (trumpet). Wailing saxophone from David Binney concludes this dramatic section and leads back to the mysterious and mournful beginning.

Joel Harrison: guitar/composer
David Binney: alto saxophone
Ralph Alessi: trumpet
Todd Reynolds and Christian Howes: violin (Mark Feldman on the lives tracks)
Caleb Burhans: viola
Wendy Sutter, cello
Lindsey Horner: bass
Dan Weiss: drums