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Jazz Articles about Wadada Leo Smith
Wadada 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 ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith / Ed Blackwell: The Blue Mountain's Sun Drummer
by Dan McClenaghan
The Blue Mountain's Sun Drummer is a set full of brash, in-your-face spontaneity, which is a meeting of expectations when the musicians at hand are trumpeter/multi-instrumentalist Wadada Leo Smith and the late drummer, Ed Blackwell. Smith's contribution to the free jazz cannon stretches back to his days with Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), while Blackwell rose to prominence as a member of Ornette Coleman's legendary quartet.The set, recorded live at Brandeis University in 1986, ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith at Cafe Oto in London
by John Sharpe
Wadada Leo SmithCafé OtoLondonJuly 24, 2010Following the unprecedented acclaim for AACM trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's appearance at London's Freedom of the City Festival in May, Cafe Oto had quickly invited him back to town for a two night residency in north London. Unable to replicate Smith's celebrated set with twin drummers, tonight he was scheduled to perform first in a duo with Mark Sanders behind the trapset, and second as part of a quintet. However ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: Abbey Road Quartet; Spiritual Dimensions & Spirit Catcher
by Marc Medwin
Wadada Leo SmithAbbey Road QuartetTreader2009 Wadada Leo SmithSpiritual DimensionsCuneiform2009 Wadada Leo SmithSpirit CatcherNessa2009 There are few players that continue to be as adventurous in maturity as they were in youth. Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's work is as uncategorizable as his sound is unique. This trio of ...
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