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Wadada Leo Smith's Organic: Heart’s Reflections
by Nic Jones
Wadada Leo Smith is currently making some of the most distinctive music on the planet; its expressive depth, as exemplified by Heart's Reflections, seemingly born not merely of one lifetime, but of several. The trumpeter's means of expression, which has never been the stuff of mere virtuosity, is now purged of all excess, resulting in something else, deeply enriched with clarity of thought and execution. It could argued that such clarity doesn't come easily, but in bringing together the musicians ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith's Organic: Heart's Reflections
by Jerry D'Souza
The creative arc of Wadada Leo Smith describes a man of many talents. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) before forming the Creative Construction Company with Anthony Braxton and Leroy Jenkins. He has organized music into rhythm units and added a form of notation he called Akhreanvention. He plays several instruments, primarily the trumpet and flugelhorn. His instincts have also led to the formation of different groups to give voice to the ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith's Organic: Heart's Reflections
by Mark Corroto
For Mies van der Rohe, the saying “less is more" might be true. But for trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, more is always more. Heart's Reflections is his fifth release for Cuneiform Records and, like his three prior efforts, a double CD.Organic, one of Smith's numerous working bands, is a continuation of his Yo Miiles! project with guitarist Henry Kaiser, the jazz/rock love child of Miles Davis' electric era. Organic was first recorded as the second disc on Smith's ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: The Teacher
by Franz A. Matzner
Wadada Leo Smith's career as a creative musician spans more than forty years. The trumpeter/composer's myriad accomplishments have been well-documented, particularly recently, as his recoding and performance career have undergone a marked renaissance, the success of which has shown a spotlight not only on his recent undertakings, but also inspired a reexamination of his past works. As an early contributor to the development of the free music revolution, Smith was an early member of the Association for ...
Continue ReadingYo Miles! Revisited: Lightning and Shinjuku
by John Kelman
Amongst the plethora of tributes to trumpet icon Miles Davis' electric period on Columbia, beginning with 1969's In a Silent Way and ending with 1975's Agharta and Pangaea, only a few stand out as being truly reverential--not just to the electrified energy and jungle funk of the music, but to its undeniably avant leanings as well. Perhaps it's because guitarist Henry Kaiser and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith live largely in the left-of-center, that their Yo Miles! Project has been particularly ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith - Ed Blackwell: The Blue Mountain's Sun Drummer
by AAJ Italy Staff
C'è voluto un quarto di secolo perchè questo meraviglioso lavoro venisse pubblicato, ma mai come in questo caso l'attesa è stata premiata dalla combinazione tra un esito artistico di grande emozione e una collocazione storico/cronologica ancora più definita. È un incontro magico quello fra la tromba di Wadada Leo Smith e la batteria di Ed Blackwell [complice la Radio della Brandeis University di Boston, eravamo nel 1986], un incontro fatto di spazi e di ritmi, di respiri e di tradizioni, ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith / Ed Blackwell: The Blue Mountain's Sun Drummer
by Clifford Allen
Since the Ornette Coleman Quartet's The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic, 1959), the trumpet's historical bar in creative music has been set in great part by Don Cherry. Not that Cherry's way was the only way and, in fact, the work of Bill Dixon, Donald Ayler, Lester Bowie, and a few others certainly paved significant directions for the instrument's place and growth in the ensuing decades. But Cherry, even as his language was a condensed, rambunctious and decidedly expansive ...
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