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Jazz Articles about Wadada Leo Smith

About Wadada Leo Smith

402

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: Luminous Axis

Read "Luminous Axis" reviewed by Farrell Lowe

by Farrell Lowe
March 12, 2003

Wadada Leo Smith has been a leading proponent of the creation of a new world music since the late '60s, in confluence with Chicago's AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). Much like Don Cherry, Smith draws from a broad palate of world musics, and he's a musical pioneer of the highest order.Luminous Axis features music for trumpet with electronics, flugelhorn, computer-driven electronics, and percussion. The music presented here is spacious, thoughtful, and imbued with an overall ...

183

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet: The Year of the Elephant

Read "The Year of the Elephant" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 5, 2002

Trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith put out a CD entitled Yo Miles! a couple of years back, so his debt to the Dark Prince, Miles Davis, is no secret. On this, The Year of the Elephant, his second CD with his Golden Quartet, Mile's influence, especially the sound of the late sixties through late seventies, pervades. In a pared down way. Miles at that time was expanding his pallet. Gutars, bass clarinet, two drummers, sitars, tablas. Smith has simplified things: Trumpet/bass/piano/drum.