Jazz Articles about Wadada Leo Smith

About Wadada Leo Smith

The Moment's Energy

Wadada Leo Smith: More Than Moments in Time

by Nic Jones
August 26, 2012

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has been pursuing his muse for decades now; that pursuit has yielded music as singular as anything out there, as his now abundant discography testifies. The release of Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 2012) earlier this year amounts to something monumental, however, and not merely because the music pans out across four discs. Smith's music has never had about it the air of culmination, and accordingly no release of his amounts to anything other than a facet ...

Extended Analysis

Wadada Leo Smith: Ten Freedom Summers

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 8, 2012

Wadada Leo SmithTen Freedom SummersCuneiform Records2012Music--protest songs or extended compositions--have long been to be an integral part of human rights struggles. Suffice to mention such canonical musical statements as drummer Max Roach's We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (Candid, 1960) and Lift Every Voice and Sing (Atlantic, 1971), saxophonist John Coltrane's “Alabama" from Live at Birdland (Impulse!, 1963) or bassist Charles Mingus' “Meditations on Integration (or for a Pair of Wire-Cutters)" and “Fables ...

Extended Analysis

Ten Freedom Summers

by John Sharpe
July 8, 2012

Wadada Leo Smith Ten Freedom Summers Cuneiform Records 2012 Without doubt Ten Freedom Summers is the crowning achievement of trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's distinguished career to date. Years in the making, the complete sequence of 19 songs, inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, was recorded live at Los Angeles' Red Cat club in 2011, producing over four hours of superbly nuanced, invigorating music. Southwest Chamber Music, under the direction of Jeff von ...

Extended Analysis

Wadada Leo Smith: Ten Freedom Summers

by Mark Redlefsen
June 25, 2012

Wadada Leo SmithTen Freedom SummersCuneiform Records2012Jazz music and the Civil Rights Movement in America have moved on parallel tracks from the 20th century up until the present. Freedom Suite (Riverside, 1958) by saxophonist Sonny Rollins, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite (Candid, 1960) by drummer Max Roach and also Attica Blues (Implulse, 1972) by saxophonist Archie Shepp are all strong statements that still retain their vital relevance and serve as period ...

Extended Analysis

Wadada Leo Smith: Ten Freedom Summers

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
June 18, 2012

Wadada Leo SmithTen Freedom SummersCuneiform Records2012Trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers is four and a half hours of music, spread over four compact discs. The mind struggles to make coherent sense of so large an undertaking. Smith has said that there are no recurring musical motifs; the nineteen pieces--most of them fully-developed suites in their own right, three of them stretching over twenty minutes--stand on their own. Two groups--Smith's ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: Ten Freedom Summers

Read "Ten Freedom Summers" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 18, 2012

Igor Stravinskij affermava che il significato della musica è legato unicamente al rapporto tra gli elementi musicali, collocati in una costruzione senza alcun legame con altre realtà. Ciò è parzialmente valido nei confronti della musica composta a tavolino, studiata ed elaborata nei suoi dettagli squisitamente costruttivi. Ma la musica che in sé contiene elementi di improvvisazione, di creazione immediata, di trasmissione orale e per imitazione, ha senza dubbio uno stretto rapporto con la realtà circostante, interagisce con essa, trae alimento ...

Catching Up With

Wadada Leo Smith: Sounding America’s Freedom

by Franz A. Matzner
June 18, 2012

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has been at the forefront of musical invention for 40 years and has recently entered a late-career renaissance. In May, 2012, this seminal musician released his greatest effort to date, Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform), a 30-year in-the-making testament to the power of civil rights and the importance of artistic engagement in social activism. As the United States faces an election, at the heart of which lies race relations, Smith's message of liberty is intended to drive ...