Jazz Articles about Wadada Leo Smith

About Wadada Leo Smith

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: String Quartets Nos. 1-12

Read "String Quartets Nos. 1-12" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 28, 2022

In the thirty-page booklet that accompanies Wadada Leo Smith's String Quartets Nos. 1-12, the trumpeter & composer devotes a few paragraphs to the subject of inspiration. He traces an irregular line whose points include Claude Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Muddy Waters, Ornette Coleman, and others. But those diverse artists, who came and went before Smith, have no markers in this seven-disc box set; they illuminate the composer's creative process and lay the barest groundwork for his new concepts. The ...

Radio & Podcasts

Wadada Leo Smith, William Parker & Aakash Mittal

by Maurice Hogue
December 15, 2021

Two of the most important creators of original music are featured in this episode—trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and his Great Lakes Quartet with the entire “Diamond Symphony" from The Chicago Symphonies, the second of two releases by Tum Records, and bassist William Parker with a piece from Painters Winter and one from Blue Limelight, one of the ten discs in his mind-boggling box set, . Saxophonist Aakash Mittal was influenced by the sounds of life during his sojourn in Kolkata, ...

Multiple Reviews

Wadada Leo Smith: 80 Years Strong

by Doug Collette
December 12, 2021

The celebration of trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith's 80th birthday milestone year culminates with yet another four-CD box set plus a proportionately sumptuous single-disc package. Both sets include extensively-annotated booklets with background on the graphics of the package as well as the music itself, with a thorough attention to detail reflective of the Mississippi native's boundless drive to stretch his own limits and those of his collaborators. As with the three-CD sets issued that precede these titles—Trumpet (Tum Records, 2021) and ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday

Read "A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 1, 2021

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith creates a new trio with Vijay Iyer and drummer Jack DeJohnette. While the pianist and drummer have never recorded together, like a Venn diagram, their orbits were destined to overlap. Both musicians have recorded duets with Smith and both were members of Smith's Golden Quartet, just not at the same time. This recording from 2016, by three master artists, was fated to occur. With each new release from Smith, we appoint it as his ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith, Vijay Iyer & Jack DeJohnette: A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday

Read "A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 29, 2021

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith reconvenes his Golden Quartet (sort of) for A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday. It began back in 2000 with the group's eponymous Tzadik Records release, featuring pianist Anthony Davis, Malachi Favors Maghostut on bass and drummer Jack DeJohnette. More albums came about—The Year of the Elephant (Pi Recordings, 2002), Tabligh (Cuniform Records, 2008) and more. The cast of characters shuffled, and some of Smith's most beautiful and approachable music was made. This time around, ...

Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith's Great Lakes Quartet: The Chicago Symphonies

Read "The Chicago Symphonies" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
November 26, 2021

The prolific virtuoso Wadada Leo Smith gave us two TUM Records box sets in the first half of 2021 and will end the year with two more, including the very ambitious The Chicago Symphonies. The four-disc collection features the trumpeter/composer's Great Lakes Quartet with saxophonist/flutist Henry Threadgill, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Jack DeJohnette. The final disc trades Threadgill for saxophonist Jonathon Haffner. Smith, who composed each of the movements, took his inspiration from Don Cherry 's Symphony ...

Multiple Reviews

Wadada Leo Smith: Aesthetic Apex

by Doug Collette
June 21, 2021

It would be difficult to find a musician more loyal to his muse than Wadada Leo Smith. From projects with his Golden Quartet/Quintet such as America's National Parks (TUM Records, 2016) to the more expansive ensemble effort Najwa (TUM Records, 2017), then on to the stringent focus of Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk (TUM Records, 2017), it might be fair to say this eighty-year old trumpeter/bandleader/composer never found a challenge he did not relish confronting. And, most fortunately these ...