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Wadada 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, ...
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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 ...
Continue ReadingZen Widow – Wadada Leo Smith: Screaming in Daytime (Makes Men Forget)
by AAJ Italy Staff
Quel giramondo di Gianni Gebbia, compone ormai da diversi anni, fra i tanti, un gruppo con i californiani Matthew Goodheart e Garth Powell denominato Zen Widow, che in questo lavoro ha la ventura di ospitare un'icona come Wadada. Ne vien fuori un quartetto ottimamente coeso, in cui l'illustre ospite non si comporta affatto come tale, entrando nelle maglie della musica come solo un grande artista che non la pretende mai da primadonna è in grado di fare. Fin dall'iniziale “Gifts ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith & Louis Moholo-Moholo: Ancestors
by Eyal Hareuveni
The title of this remarkable album says it all. American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo are two forefathers of modern jazz, innovative musicians who redefined the practices of their instruments and the connections between the Afro-American, African and European jazz legacies-- creative composers and esteemed bandleaders for nearly five decades and role models for generations of musicians. So, this musical meeting between these two masters, their first as a duo, was bound to happen. Thanks ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith & Louis Moholo-Moholo: Ancestors
by Mark Corroto
The Theology of the Body is an integrated vision of the human person as body, soul, and spirit. Attending the church of jazz, this amalgamation can be best illustrated+ with improvisation and, if so, this duo of trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo is a sacred meeting.Following the previous releases of Smith's duos with drummers Günter “Baby" Sommer on Wisdom In Time (Intakt, 2007), Adam Rudolph on Compassion (Meta/Kabell, 2006), Jack DeJohnette with America (Tzadik, 2007) ...
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