Jazz Articles about Wadada Leo Smith

About Wadada Leo Smith

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: America’s National Parks

Read "America’s National Parks" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
October 10, 2016

Approssimandosi al traguardo dei tre quarti di secolo (ci arriverà il prossimo 18 dicembre), Wadada Leo Smith, in una fase della sua carriera feconda (diremmo persino fulgida, senza voler peccare di retorica) come non mai, se ne esce con uno dei lavori che rimarranno fra i più luminosi della sua discografia, per mole, ambizioni (supportate dalla sostanza, ovviamente), pathos, importanza dei musicisti coinvolti, e chi più ne ha più ne metta. L'obiettivo, stavolta, è puntato sui parchi ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks

Read "America's National Parks" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
October 10, 2016

The U.S. National Park Service celebrates its centennial in 2016 (it was created in 1916 when Congress passed the Organic Act). There are many celebrations planned, but few are likely to match the power and individuality of Wadada Leo Smith's epic six-part suite. Over the two discs (a bit over 90 minutes total playing time) Smith explores the spiritual and psychological aspects of setting aside reserves for common property for the use of American citizens--and the political dynamics involved. The ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks

Read "America's National Parks" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
October 6, 2016

In the last half-decade of the inspirational forty-five year career of Wadada Leo Smith, he has generated one bona fide masterpiece after another, building and expanding on the qualities that consistently push his music to an apex with no apparent upper limit. With his four-and-a-half hours Pulitzer Prize finalist Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform Records, 2012) he unleashed a succession of projects, some of epic stature, such as Occupy The World (TUM Records, 2013), The Great Lakes Suite (TUM Records, 2015), ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks

Read "America's National Parks" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 27, 2016

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has a feel for the epic in his art, on recordings like: America (Tzadik Records, 2009), a duet set with drummer Jack DeJohnette; “America's Third Century Spiritual Awakening," from his first Golden Quartet (Tzadik Records, 2000) outing; Occupy The World (TUM Records, 2013), with the Finish big band, Tumo; The Great Lakes Suite (TUM Records, 2014), and his massive four disc master work, Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform Records, 2012), inspired by America's civil rights movement.

Live Review

Wadada Leo Smith Golden Quartet at La Sala Rossa

by Mike Chamberlain
June 8, 2016

Wadada Leo Smith Golden Quartet La Sala Rossa Suoni Per Il Popolo Montreal, Quebec June 2, 2016 The Suoni Per Il Popolo, the annual June festival organized by the people at La Sala Rossa and Casa del Popolo, opened its Sala Rossa portion of the program with a concert by trumpeter/composer/teacher Wadada Leo Smith and his Golden Quartet of Anthony Davis, John Lindberg, and Pheeroan akLaff playing music from ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith, John Lindberg: Celestial Weather

Read "Celestial Weather" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
January 11, 2016

Entrambi colonne dell'avanguardia jazzistica, sia pure con tempi, ruoli e modalità differenti, Wadada Leo Smith e John Lindberg dialogano in questo notevole album, la cui incisione risale al giugno 2012, dando da subito l'impressione di intendersi ottimamente. La suite che apre il disco (e che si deve al trombettista, come del resto la successiva, laddove la terza e ultima è opera di Lindberg) decolla con una bella vivacità, pur nell'ovvia economia di mezzi (tromba e basso puri, ...

Multiple Reviews

Wadada Leo Smith, fenomenologia di un maestro

by Luca Canini
May 18, 2015

Non tutti i maestri sono uguali. C'è chi sceglie di farsi da parte, riducendo al minimo gli sconfinamenti, gli azzardi, i contatti con situazioni potenzialmente rischiose. E c'è chi invece si ostina a cercare, a condividere; tenendo fede a quella che del jazz è la suprema vocazione: la fisiologica tendenza a includere, in un continuo sovrapporsi e intrecciarsi di linguaggi, esperienze, generazioni. Wadada Leo Smith, trombettista, classe '41, appartiene di diritto a questa seconda categoria. Dall'alto di ...