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Wadada Leo Smith: String Quartets Nos. 1-12
by Mark Corroto
Wadada Leo Smith's seven CD boxset String Quartets Nos. 1-12 summons two words, epic and ineffable. The 5½ hours of music chronicle three of his four periods writing for string quartets from 1965 until 2019. The remaining work, “String Quartets Nos. 13, 14, and 15" inspired by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution, although written, have yet to be recorded. Smith's vision is skillfully executed by the RedKoral Quartet—Shalini Vijayan (violin), Mona Tian (violin), Andrew McIntosh ...
read moreWadada Leo Smith: The Emerald Duets
by Karl Ackermann
The pioneering British photographer/author Val Wilmer said of Wadada Leo Smith, “he no longer relates to the restrictions of scales and chords. To him, music is about two things only: sound and rhythm." Her assessment, from the essential book As Serious As Your Life (Allison & Busby Ltd, 1977), was published in 1977. But in the survey of creative music history, her title could have been a sole perspective on Smith. After being a regular contributor to John ...
read moreWadada Leo Smith: The Emerald Duets
by Dan McClenaghan
Wadada Leo Smith's music is often celestial, but the man himself is of this Earth—of America, in particular, the progeny of people brought to the Western Hemisphere involuntarily. People who have historically been treated as less than human, for the “sin" of having dark skin. This goes on. The true sin, the flames of racism, are stoked by a former and possibly future (God help us all) president—a cruel, sociopathic, immoral, dishonest racist. Wadada Leo Smith is America. ...
read moreWadada Leo Smith: String Quartets Nos. 1-12
by Karl Ackermann
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 ...
read moreOGJB Quartet: Ode To O
by John Sharpe
An assemblage of stars doesn't always result in a constellation. But astronomers will need to take note in the case of the OGJB Quartet, called after the forename initials of the four members: reedman Oliver Lake, cornetist Graham Haynes, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul. On the venerable collective's second album Ode To O following their eponymous debut in 2019, one of the most striking traits is how much they sound like a band. As might be expected in ...
read moreThe OGJB Quartet: Ode To O
by Jerome Wilson
The OGJB Quartet, a formidable all-star grouping of saxophonist Oliver Lake, cornetist Graham Haynes, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul, are back with their second album, one even more wide-ranging and soulful than their first, Bamako, (TUM, 2019). The album combines tracks based on gutbucket rhythms with others full of exploratory abstractions. The album title, Ode To O, refers to Ornette Coleman and the title track, written by Altschul, has he and Fonda laying down an assured ...
read moreAndrew Cyrille, William Parker & Enrico Rava: 2 Blues For Cecil
by Karl Ackermann
Cecil Taylor's music was not for the faint of heart. The legendary pianist who performed like a combination of poet-percussionist-dancer rests now, but there is little doubt that discoveries from the archives will continue to be unearthed or reissued. In the meantime, tribute albums as eclectic as Taylor himself have been surfacing since he passed in 2018. Among the best was Six Encomiums for Cecil Taylor (Tzadik, 2018) from the Winged Serpents collective that included top pianists Craig Taborn, Kris ...
read moreAndrew Cyrille, William Parker & Enrico Rava: 2 Blues For Cecil
by Dan McClenaghan
Finland's TUM Records wrapped up 2021 with a free jazz flourish, releasing trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's Great Lakes Quartet's stellar box set, The Chicago Symphonies and also Smith's masterful A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday. The momentum continued in January 2022 with the label's release of The OGJB Quartet's Ode To O and—the subject of this review—2 Blues For Cecil, from drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassist William Parker and trumpeter & flugelhornist Enrico Rava. All three players here are ...
read moreWadada Leo Smith: A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday
by Mark Corroto
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 ...
read moreWadada Leo Smith, Vijay Iyer & Jack DeJohnette: A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday
by Dan McClenaghan
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, ...
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