Smith's Great Lakes Quartet / Wadada,Leo - Chicago Symphonies - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

(7-CD set) String Quartets Nos. 1-12 focus on Wadada Leo Smith as a composer for strings. Smith began work on his first string quartet in 1965 and has composed string quartets and other works for strings throughout his career. Smith has also featured strings on a number of his other major works, including Ten Freedom Summers in 2011, Occupy The World in 2012 (TUM CD 037-2) and Rosa Parks Pure Love in 2016/17 (TUM CD 057).String Quartets Nos. 1-12 represent a magnificent addition not only to Smith's own recorded output but also to the literature for modern string quartet music in general. Compositions vary from relatively brief, one-part quartets of highly evocative and at times meditative soundscapes to the groundbreaking InchString Quartet No. 11Inch that fills two discs with it's nine movements. String Quartets Nos. 1-12 were recorded by the RedKoral Quartet. The group was brought together by Smith during his tenure at CalArts and was featured on the recording of Ten Freedom Summers more than a decade ago and again on Rosa Parks Pure Love as well as on numerous live performances of Smith's string quartets and other works over the past decade. In addition, featured soloists on the recording include harpist Alison Bjorkedal (InchString Quartet No. 4Inch), pianist Anthony Davis (InchString Quartet No. 6Inch), percussionist Lynn Vartan (InchString Quartet No. 6Inch), guitarist Stuart Fox (InchString Quartet No. 7Inch) and voice artist Thomas Buckner (InchString Quartet No. 8Inch) as well as Wadada Leo Smith himself on trumpet (InchString Quartet No. 6Inch and InchString Quartet No. 8Inch). Album Tracks 1. String Quartet No. 1 (1965-1982) 2. Movement 1 InchUlysses Simpson Kay (1917-1995)Inch 3. Movement 2 InchThomas Jefferson Anderson, Jr. (1928-)Inch 4. Movement 3 InchHale Smith (1925-2009)Inch 5. Movement 4 InchGeorge Theophilus Walker (1922-2018)Inch

(5-CD set) The Emerald Duets is a crowning achievement among Wadada Leo Smith's many recorded duo collaborations with drummers/percussionists that have previously featured such creative giants as Ed Blackwell, Jack DeJohnette, Milford Graves (TUM BOX 003), Louis Moholo-Moholo (TUM CD 029) and Gnter Sommer, among others. The Emerald Duets features four master drummers who have each, in their own unique fashion, contributed to the way modern drumming has developed in the past six decades and how it is now perceived. Pheeroan akLaff, Andrew Cyrille and Han Bennink are each featured on one disc and Jack DeJohnette on two discs, including Smith's five-part composition InchParadise The Gardens and FountainsInch that fills the fifth disc of this boxed set in it's entirety. The sessions with akLaff, Cyrille and DeJohnette mostly feature compositions by Wadada Leo Smith, including three very different versions of Smith's powerful statement for the protection of freedom and democracy, InchThe Patriot Act, Unconstitutional and a Force that Destroys Democracy.Inch The session with Bennink includes a combination of Smith's compositions and collectively created tracks. Album Tracks 1. Litanies, Prayers and Meditations 2. The Prayer (For Keith Jarrett) 3. First Meditation from the Heart The Beauty, the Beloved 4. The Uyghur in Xinjiang, China 5. A Sonic Expression (Wadada Leo Smith) 6. Part 1 7. Part 2 8. Part 3 9. Part 4 10. A Sonic Litany on Peace 11. The Patriot Act, Unconstitutional and a Force That Destroys Democracy 12. A Sonic Litany on Justice 13. Second Meditation from the Heart The Beloved, the Beauty 14. Havana, Cuba 15. The Patriot Act, Unconstitutional and a Force That Destroys Democracy 16. Havana, the Maghrib Prayer and Reflections 17. Ilhan Omar 18. Mongezi Feza 19. Jeanne Lee In a Jupiter Mood 20. Donald Ayler The Ma

(3-CD set) Trumpet is a unique three-CD boxed set of solo trumpet music recorded over one week in the beautiful natural acoustics of St. Mary's Church, the medieval stone church in the Town of Pohja on the Southern Coast of Finland. All compositions are by Wadada Leo Smith. Trumpet represents a culmination of Smith's recorded solo trumpet work that has comprised a total of six albums before Trumpet, starting with his very first album as a leader, Creative Music - 1 Six Solo Improvisations, in 1971 and ending with his dedication to Thelonious Monk, Solo Reflections and Meditations on Monk, in 2015. Album Tracks 1. Albert Ayler 2. Rashomon 3. Howard and Miles - a Photographic Image 4. Metallic Rainbow (For Steve McCall) 5. Sauna - a Healthy Journey (For Petri) 6. Malik Al-Shabazz and the People of the Shahada 7. The Great Litany 8. Leroy Jenkins Violin Expressions 9. James Baldwin - No Name in the Street; War 10. Amina Claudine Myers 11. Sonic Night - Night Colors (For Reggie Workman) 12. Discourses on the Sufi Path - a Remembrance of Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh 13. Family - a Contemplation of Love 14. Trumpet