During decades of recording and work alongside a cast of co-conspirators that could serve as a summation of jazz’s avant-garde wing, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has mapped his inspiration. And he continues to do so. At least three sets featuring or conceived of by the Pulitzer Prize finalist are set for release this year.
Sun Beans Of Shimmering Light (Astral Spirits), live recordings where Smith joined reedist Douglas R. Ewart and drummer Mike Reed in 2014 and ’15, is a modern-day Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians convergence that features interactive and in-the-moment explorations by generations of the Chicago-born collective.
The Quietus | Features | The Lead Review | Edge Of Tomorrow: Black to the Future By Sons of Kemet
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The Firm Roots of John Santos
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Gary Bartz Bridges Generations
By Dave Cantor I Feb. 19, 2021
Baltimore native Gary Bartz has remained uniquely engaged both musically and politically throughout his lengthy career. (Photo: The Artform Studio)
Gary Bartz has watched the slow roll of history drag on, first from the vantage point of his childhood home in Baltimore, then in New York and the rest of the world while on tour. The experiences have given the saxophonist perspective and a unique voice, one that’s resonated with generations of musicians and listeners. “They’re our kids the hip-hop generation. Jay-Z, his mom and dad used to come to The East to see me and to see Pharoah [Sanders]. All these kids had those records in their homes. . It’s an extension of what we’re doing I saw that immediately,” Bartz, 80, said during a late-December Zoom call from his current, well-lighted home in Oakland, California.
A tangle of connections fosters the bounty of William Parker’s career. The bassist who’s released a 10-album set called
Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World that features more than a dozen musicians is New York’s free-jazz caretaker, a performer who frequently forges symbiosis on and off the bandstand. And he’s been doing it for almost 50 years. “It’s the sound community of William Parker,” said vocalist Lisa Sokolov, who first met the bassist in the mid-1970s and appears on the Aum Fidelity box set. “If it wasn’t for William, a whole lot of us would be in really sad shape.