Insight
A series in which musicians give us insight into the background of one of their recordings
Dave Holland
Vital Spark
The Story Behind The Album Artwork
In February, 2026, jazz legends Dave Holland and Norma Winstone, together with the versatile London Vocal Project, released Vital Spark on the Edition label - an album featuring a collection of Kenny Wheeler’s final compositions that were sent over time to Pete Churchill. The album captures a rare unity between jazz ensemble and choir, revealing a sound that’s both unforced, delicate, reflective and full of Kenny’s character and energy. The music features new lyrics by Norma Winstone, alongside Wheeler’s settings of poems by Stevie Smith, Lewis Carroll, and William Blake. "The result is unmistakably Kenny Wheeler: lyrical but unsentimental, harmonically rich yet spacious. For Dave, Norma, and Pete, this project is not a retrospective but a personal, shared act of remembering and reinterpreting, shaped by decades of friendship, collaboration, and quiet reverence for one of the most singular voices in modern music."
Oli Bentley, who creates the artwork for Edition Records, writes about his thoughts behind the design for this album:
“The artwork for Vital Spark is all hand-printed using the Brico system of shapes that we’ve used for all the releases by Dave Holland on Edition. This means it was built entirely on the printing press, with no digital or computer work - and that feels like a really nice way to represent this music. We get something much more human - something warmer, and imperfect in lovely ways. This music is so human, and in a world of AI and technology, I think that’s so incredibly important to reflect and embody. Speaking with Dave, Pete and Norma, it’s clear that this project has so much humanity within it. In the design itself, there were some initial ideas we started with - the obvious connection to the title being the starting point, and trying to create something really bold and iconic from that.”
Listen to the title track:
“I’m not religious, but I do like the idea that we’re all made of cosmic dust, and the thought of Kenny as a star somewhere, looking down on the completion of this project, felt right. The idea of a spark - but not a glossy, shiny, polished one - something human, modest and warm; something that felt kind somehow, and that held a quiet joy within it, as well as depth and complexity. There was also something for me in the idea of a visual built from many layers, reflecting the way the music was made, as well as how it sounds. This is a collection of music built with so much love, care and dedication — built up over time — as well as music build of many layers - and so this patchwork forming as the layers come together, each adding more depth as it builds upon the last felt really appropriate.”
“Early in the process, Pete shared with me these amazing scans of things Kenny had sent through the post as he shared the music - not only scores with wonderful handwritten notes, but also the poems the lyrics were based on, ripped straight from the books. I knew we had to include them in the artwork, and so they appear on the inside of the gatefold. It was such a gift to be able to work with these - and to share just a few of them with everyone - offering a connection to the writing process, and to Kenny himself.”
Listen to their interpretation of Lewis Carroll's Will You Walk A Little Faster from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland:
“Pete, Dave, Norma and everyone involved in this project have treated it with such care and respect, dedicating so much time and energy to it. I just hope we’ve come close to doing justice in the visuals to the incredible music that is the outcome of all that incredible energy.”
Vital Spark was released on the Edition label on 20th February, 2026, featuring Norma Winstone (voice); Dave Holland (bass); Nikki Iles (piano); James Maddren (drums); Mark Lockheart (tenor & soprano sax); John Parricelli - guitar (on 5 tracks) and The London Vocal Project - Director: Pete Churchill (personnel here). At the time of writing, CD copies were sold out on Bandcamp but digital and vinyl copies were available - track samples and details are here. CD copies are available from Amazon (here) and other outlets.
Graphic designer Oli Bentley picture courtesy of Sara Teresa
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2026.5