During the 1970s, a period when fusion experiments dominated jazz, putting together a straight-ahead mainstream ensemble looked improbable at best. Bob Wilber and Kenny Davern first clicked musically at Dick Gibson’s annual Colorado Jazz Party in 1972 after sharing a single tune, which led them to launch Soprano Summit within months. Both players doubled on soprano and clarinet and were initially backed by pianist Dick Hyman, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, bassist George Duvivier, and drummer Bobby Rosengarden; those two early sessions appeared on the World Jazz label.
The group reached full stride by 1976, when Wilber and Davern began working regularly with acoustic guitarist/vocalist Marty Grosz and a rotating cast of bassists and drummers. Their sets emphasized ardent readings of pre-bop standards and overlooked material, with the co-leaders’ exchanges remaining consistently fiery and inventive. Before the band dissolved in 1979, Soprano Summit had issued recordings on Chiaroscuro, Jazzology, Concord, and Fat Cat’s Jazz, along with a third album for World Jazz.
An informal reunion took place in 1986 between Davern, by then devoted exclusively to clarinet, and Wilbur, and the pair continued to perform together from time to time afterward. They documented several occasions under the name Soprano Reunion, employing the original rhythm section with Milt Hinton substituting for the late Duvivier, in both 1990 and 1992. The Chiaroscuro and Concord sessions have since been reissued on CD and remain strongly recommended.
