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Wadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love. An Oratorio of Seven Songs
by Doug Hall
Acclaimed trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator Wadada Leo Smith has released an oratorio of seven songs inspired by the iconic civil rights leader Rosa Parks. In his own words, Rosa Parks: Pure Love. An Oratorio of Seven Songs is “concerned with ideas of freedom, liberty and justice, a meditation centered around the civil rights movement." Looking at Smith's more than 50 years of creative and artistic vision, this release is yet another inspired organic musical direction that has established him ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love
by Karl Ackermann
Like several exceptional modern era composers from Ornette Coleman to John Zorn to Tyshawn Sorey, the “jazz" appellation has only anecdotal application to the latter-day calling of Wadada Leo Smith as a composer. On his previous Cuneiform releases Ten Freedom Summers (2012) and America's National Parks (2016), Smith worked with an ear toward confronting injustice and raising social awareness of issues that share a broad platform. He continues in that vein with Rosa Parks: Pure Love , subtitled “An Oratorio ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: Najwa
by Chris M. Slawecki
Trumpet player Wadada Leo Smith is one of the few musicians remaining from the original, founding generation of Chicago's legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. But he has hardly rested since; Smith's Ten Freedom Summers (2012, Cuneiform) was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music; in 2017, Smith swept the Downbeat Critics' Poll for Trumpeter, Artist, and Album (America's National Parks, [Cuneiform]) of the Year, and he was named Musician of the Year by the Jazz ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk
by Vincenzo Roggero
Omaggiare la figura e la musica di Thelonious Monk è sempre una sfida ardua da superare per qualsiasi musicista. Se poi la si affronta in solitaria e nemmeno al pianoforte bensì alla tromba, ardua lo diventa ancora di più. Ma è lo stesso Wadada Leo Smith che ci rassicura. “La maggior parte delle persone -afferma nelle ricche note di copertina --non si rende conto che sono vicino a Monk più di qualsiasi altro artista. Ci accomunano, tra le altre cose, ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: Najwa
by Maurizio Comandini
Il trombettista Wadada Leo Smith chiama a raccolta i suoi fedelissimi per una nuova scorribanda nei territori dell'emozione, con la sua tromba spiritata che guida il cammino con saggezza e ferma determinazione, tracciando le linee guida attraverso le quali poi tutti i musicisti saranno chiamati a dare il proprio ampio contributo nella tessitura narrativa dei cinque brani originali che compongono questo ottimo Najwa. Composizioni tutte firmate dal settantaseienne trombettista di Leland, Mississippi. Ritroviamo con piacere al fianco di Wadada i ...
Continue ReadingIl meglio del 2017 secondo Nicola Negri
by Nicola Negri
Un altro anno di musica straordinaria: dodici dischi (e una manciata di concerti memorabili) per riflettere sul 2017 appena concluso. Maestri come Wadada Leo Smith e Roscoe Mitchell continuano a stupire per coraggio e coerenza; Nicole Mitchell e Satoko Fujii si confermano musiciste e compositrici di valore assoluto; si delineano nuove prospettive grazie a Irreversible Entanglements, Hear in Now, Lisa Mezzacappa, Miles Okazaki; The Necks e Sexmob ripropongono formule consolidate eppure sempre appassionanti; la libera improvvisazione supera ogni confine con ...
Continue ReadingSolo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk & Najwa
by Doug Collette
Wadada Leo Smith's most recently recorded albums reaffirm this trumpeter/composer/bandleader's deep, abiding loyalty to his muse. Equally so on stage or in the studio, Smith's devotion to the creative impulse is absolutely unwavering, and, as a result, his works are pure, direct expressions of his concepts, undiluted by compromise. Such is the uniformity of his execution that Smith can take diverse approaches as represented by these two TUM records, one of which is a solo album in homage to Thelonious ...
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