Home » Jazz Articles » Wadada Leo Smith
Jazz Articles about Wadada Leo Smith
Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet: Tabligh
by Dan McClenaghan
For Tabligh, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has reassembled a Golden Quartet to blow, very Miles Davis-like, on a follow-up recording to Year of the Elephant (Pi Recordings, 2002). But the lineup, excepting the leader, has changed.The sound is, in part, an exploration of Miles' electric period, from 1969-75, albeit in a sparer mode--a rhythm section and the trumpet rather than the guitar-driven, multi-layered assaults of some of Davis's more adventurous days. The music is dark, turbulent, murky, intense--often ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith / Gunter Baby Sommer: Wisdom In Time
by Nic Jones
This program of duo performances by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and drummer Gunter Baby Sommer is both the renewal on record of a long-standing musical relationship and at the same time a kind of homage to their fallen comrade, the bassist Peter Kowald, whose death robbed the improvised music scene of one of its stalwarts. Amongst other things, the three men had recorded as a trio (Touch the Earth, FMP Records, 1979) and their shared history lends this music a ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: Wisdom in Time & Brooklyn Duos
by Kurt Gottschalk
Wadada Leo Smith/Gunter Baby Sommer Wisdom in Time Intakt 2007 John Coxon/Wadada Leo Smith Brooklyn Duos Treader 2007
The duo of Wadada Leo Smith and Günter Baby Sommer is the remains of a trio pulled together by the late bassist Peter Kowald some 30 years ago. The group recorded two excellent ...
Continue ReadingJohn Coxon / Wadada Leo Smith: Brooklyn Duos
by Eyal Hareuveni
John Coxon of the British drum n' bass duo Spring Heel Jack first collaborated with American trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith on the duo's last and most challenging and fully realized effort, The Sweetness of The Water (Thirsty Ear, 2004). This release was recorded a year later in Brooklyn by John Zorn collaborator Jamie Saft.
But whereas The Sweetness of the Water was a beautiful showcase of an emphatic and conversational meeting between Smith and another master ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith - Gunter Baby Sommer: Wisdom in Time
by AAJ Italy Staff
Come la maggior parte dei dischi impro anche Wisdom in Time ha la sua (retro)storia, ossia un percorso, delle vicende e degli incontri tra i due protagonisti, Wadada Leo Smith e Gunter Baby Sommer, che sottendono la musica vera e propria. Già proprio quella che quando la si ascolta fa dimenticare tutto, ma proprio tutto, dando invece importanza e centralità solo ed esclusivamente al Presente, all’Attimo, all’Atto, come gesti unici e assoluti di quell’incredibile e inesauribile esperienza che è l’improvvisazione. ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith & Adam Rudolph: Compassion
by Florence Wetzel
Compassion, a beautiful duet recording by Wadada Leo Smith and Adam Rudolph, provides a welcome addition to jazz' long tradition of spiritual expression. Recorded live in 2002 at a concert in Venice, California, the disc features Smith on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Rudolph on handrumset, dusu'ngoni, sibsi, vocal, kalimbas, gongs, cymbals and percussion. The song titles give a sense of the musicians' intentions--for example, “Sun Ray Colors and Rainbow Images," “Fragrance of Light," and “Silver Drum Circle." ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith and Adam Rudolph: Compassion
by Rex Butters
Long-time occasional collaborators Wadada Leo Smith and Adam Rudolph perform improvised/composed duets from a 2002 performance live at Venice's Electric Lodge on Compassion, newly released on Rudolph's Meta Records. Both are masters of their mediums: Rudolph plays a variety of percussion instruments and at least one wind instrument to sonically shade, color, and texturize; Smith uses trumpet and flugelhorn in conventional and extended ways to complement him. With improvisers of this depth, the journey takes many unexpected turns, all rewarding. ...
Continue Reading
