Arguable the most important trumpeter of the avant garde set, Wadada Leo Smith releases a pair of collections that continue to fascinate and inspire, linking the past of the great horn players to the world of Tomorrowland.
Smith’s Great Lakes Quartet of either Henry Threadgill/as-fl-bfl or Jonathan Haffner/as-ss, John Lindberg/b and Jack DeJohnette/dr create 4 multi-movement “Chicago Symphonies” that will never be confused with anything by Georg Solti
The first, the “Gold Symphony No. 1” is a five movement suite with Smith clear and free on the muted “Light Fieldss and Circles” while open and agonizing on “Creative Music” which displays strong long tone practice. DeJohnette is in rich and intuitive form as he rumbles and guides throughout. “Diamond Symphony No. 2” freatures Threadgill’s open flute and acidic alto on “The Rare Air Songs…” and the band sounding like vintage early Ornette Coleman with alto and horn on “Special Edition” and th e melancholic “Muhal Richard Abrams”. “The Pearl Symphone No. 3” has Lindberg bowing profusely on ‘Heliocentri Cun Ra’s Energy…” and the team jarringly swirled on “Scented Yellow and Red Chrysanthemums”. “The Sapphire Symphony No. 4” is dedicated to Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Barak Obama, getting into an R&B groove with DeJohnnette on “Barack Hussein Obama At Selma” and Smith crying out over DeJohnette’s drums on “Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President…”. The music is highly intuitive, with lots of trios, duets and solos veering in and out of this ambitious collection.
An all star summit with Smith on trumpet, pianist Vijay Iyer and DeJohnette get together for free floating ideas for 5 compositions. Smith’s “Billie Holiday: A Love Sonnet” has the trumpeter agonizing over Iyer’s blue piano, with Iyer getting into some classical form with DeJohnettes’ cymbals and Smith’s harmon mute on “Song For World Forgiveness”. Iyer adds some keyboard concepts on the spacey and electical “Deep Time No. 1” while going from Monk to soul jazz and post bop piano on the pretty “The A.D. Opera…” and creating some funky effects on”Rocket”. Musical dream visions.