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Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers at London Jazz Festival 2013
by John Sharpe
Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers: London, England, November 21-23, 2013 Wadada Leo Smith Café Oto London November 21-23, 2013 As part of the London Jazz Festival, over three consecutive evenings, Dalston's Cafe Oto presented the European premiere of trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers magnum opus. Although such a groundbreaking production might be more expected in one of the large auditoriums on the capital's South Bank, the goodwill built up ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith & Tumo: Occupy The World
by AAJ Italy Staff
Dopo Ten Feedom Summer, evento concertistico e discografico tra i più memorabili degli ultimi anni, il trombettista e compositore Wadada Leo Smith torna ad incidere con una grande formazione realizzando un doppio album ancora una volta dalla grande valenza politica/civile e ancora una volta dallo straordinario impatto musicale. Questa volta Smith, insieme al collaboratore di lunga data John Lindberg, si avvale dei servigi della Tumo Orchestra , ensemble formato da ventun musicisti tra i più rappresentativi della scena nordica, provenienti ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: Occupy the World
by Eyal Hareuveni
Great trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith's five epic extended compositions collected on the double album Occupy The World mark him as a major American composer with a musical language and artistic vision that transcends the boundaries of the Afro-American heritage of jazz. Smith wrote complex orchestral works before, most notably on the masterful, extensive 4-discs Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 2012), that addressed political and historical issues still, the expanded and rearranged works represent a new musical triumph within the ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith & TUMO: Occupy The World
by John Sharpe
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith continues to challenge preconceptions. With Occupy The World, he exposes another facet of his orchestral music; more expansive than his stunning Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 2012) and less earthy than Hearts Reflection (Cuneiform, 2011), it's still part of a long lineage of large group works stretching back to Budding Of A Rose (Moers Music, 1978) and Lake Biwa (Tzadik, 2004). Finland's TUM Records invited Smith to present five of his works in the capital of Helsinki, ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith and Tumo: Occupy the World
by Hrayr Attarian
Trumpeter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Wadada Leo Smith's career has been one of relentless exploration and bold innovation. His timeless works have always eschewed narrow categorization and shattered musical boundaries. Now, in the eight decade of his life his creative vision has matured without losing any of its youthful energy. On the heels of his epic Pulitzer Prize finalist masterpiece, Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 2012,) and his intimate and expressive duet with South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, Ancestors (Tum, 2012), comes ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith & Louis Moholo-Moholo: Ancestors
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo are grand old men in the annals of adventurous jazz, having played in a dizzying variety of settings through more than five decades. More to the point, both have amply shown a capacity for nuanced playing in demanding, interactive improvisational formats. An intimate duet performance by the pair, featured on Ancestors--sensitively recorded by Suikki Jääskä in Finland in February 2011--is thus a sure thing. The question is whether the result will exceed ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith - Louis Moholo-Moholo: Ancestors
by AAJ Italy Staff
Mai titolo fu più centrato di questo: ancestrale, storico e ampiamente storicizzato, è il ruolo giocato dai due protagonisti di questo bellissimo album nell'evolversi di un jazz di ricerca degli ultimi quarantacinque anni o giù di lì, e ancestrale è il tono stesso del disco, con quel misto di solennità e ritualismo che magistralmente si addice al contesto. I due brillanti settantenni, l'uno tra i capi carismatici dell'AACM, l'altro della colonia sudafricana che a metà anni Sessanta andò a irrorare ...
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