Heart’s Reflections (Cuneiform Records)
Wadada Leo Smith’s Organic
Released May 17, 2011
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2011
YouTube:
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About:
Although he made his reputation over decades and
decades of work in the free jazz and improvised music realm and as a early
member of Chicago’s hugely influencial AACM (the Association for the
Advancement of Creative Music), trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has long been
interested in larger ensembles and electric music as well. Heart’s Reflections
is a bold double-disc set that features Wadada Leo Smith’s Organic, a
predominately electric, fourteen-piece group, a band most notable for a lineup
marked by four guitarists. In addition to Smith, who plays both acoustic and
electric trumpet, the extraordinary lineup on Heart’s Reflection includes:
Brandon Ross, Michael Gregory, Lamar Smith, and Josh Gerowitz on guitar; Skuli
Sverrisson and John Lindberg on bass; Angelica Sanchez on acoustic
and electric piano; Stephanie Smith on violin; Casey Anderson on alto
saxophone; Casey Butler on tenor saxophone; Mark Trayle and Charlie Burgin on
laptops; and Pheeroan AkLaff on drums.
For a record by such a large group, at times the sound is surprisingly sparse
and delicate – both qualities that have long marked Smith’s work, while at
other times, it sizzles and stomps! Though longtime listeners who haven’t
followed Wadada’s work in the last decade might be surprised at times by the
fierceness of Organic’s rhythm section, Heart’s Reflections is nonetheless
marked by the trumpeter’s usual touchstones: long sustained notes, occasional
clipped phrases, and a tough-to-define playfulness that infuses all of his
work.
Coming across like the next evolutionary step after Miles Davis’ electric era,
Heart’s Reflections is a vibrant set that harkens back to the blues influence
of Smith’s Mississippi childhood, and looks forward to still-developing realms
of noise and electronics. The album fuses a galaxy of influences into a natural
and accessible form, offering an ideal entry point into Smith’s vast oeuvre.
Heart’s Reflections should appeal to fans of groove-oriented jazz, as well as
rock and electronics audiences with a taste for adventure.
Track Listing:
Disc 1
1. Don Cherry’s Electric Sonic Garden [For Don Cherry]
(Wadada Leo Smith) 20:50
2. The Dhikr of Radiant Hearts, Pt. 1 (Wadada Leo Smith) 02:32
3. The Dhikr of Radiant Hearts, Pt. 2 (Wadada Leo Smith) 06:27
4. The Majestic Way (Wadada Leo Smith) 09:12
5. The Shaykh, as Far as Humaythira (Wadada Leo Smith) 07:29
6. Spiritual Wayfarers (Wadada Leo Smith) 06:10
7. Certainty (Wadada Leo Smith) 05:24
8. Ritual Purity and Love, Pt. 1 (Wadada Leo Smith) 03:34
9. Ritual Purity and Love, Pt. 2 (Wadada Leo Smith) 02:31
Disc 2
1. Silsila (Wadada Leo Smith) 05:34
2. The Well: From Bitter to Fresh Sweet Water, Pt. 1 (Wadada Leo Smith) 06:12
3. The Well: From Bitter to Fresh Sweet Water, Pt. 2 (Wadada Leo Smith) 05:02
4. Toni Morrison: The Black Hole (Sagittarius A)/Conscience and Epic Memory [For Toni Morrison] (Wadada Leo Smith) 10:35
5. Leroy Jenkins’s Air Steps [For Leroy Jenkins] (Wadada Leo Smith) 22:28
Personnel:
Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet, electric trumpet
Michael Gregory: electric guitars
Pheeroan akLaff: drums
Brandon Ross: electric guitar
John Lindberg: acoustic bass, electric acoustic bass
Skúli Sverrisson: electric bass, 6-string bass
Angelica Sanchez: acoustic piano, Wurlitzer electric piano
Josh Gerowitz: electric guitar
Lamar Smith: electric guitar
Stephanie Smith: violin
Casey Anderson: alto saxophone
Casey Butler: tenor saxophone
Mark Trayle: laptop
Charlie Burgin: laptop
Recorded
and mixed at Firehouse 12 Recording Studio, New Haven CT.
Engineer: Nick Lloyd
Tracking Assistant: Doug DiCrosta
Overdub Engineer: Clay Chaplin, Herb Alpert’s School of Music, California
Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA.
Mixed by Nick Lloyd, Michael Gregory and Wadada Leo Smith.
Mastered by Gene Paul at G&J Audio, Union City, NJ.
Mastering Assistant: Jamie Polaski
Produced by Michael Gregory.
Executive Producer: Wadada Leo Smith
Review:
Wadada Leo Smith’s large ensemble Organic made their first appearance on the second disc of his 2009 double CD, Spiritual Dimensions; this, though, is the group’s first set of studio recordings. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Smith co-led the band Yo Miles! with guitarist Henry Kaiser, reinterpreting (and later writing original music inspired by) the 1970s work of Miles Davis’ guitar-heavy electric funk bands. Organic’s music is superficially similar to that band’s, but with a much greater degree of abstraction (in addition to Smith’s trumpet, two saxophones, and up to four electric guitarists, the ensemble features one upright and one electric bassist, a violinist, and two members performing on laptops) and a generally more meditative feel that’s likely rooted in the leader’s deep and constant spiritual questing. Tracks carry dedications to Don Cherry and Smith’s AACM peer, violinist Leroy Jenkins, as well as Toni Morrison and Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili, the founder of the Shadhili order of Sufi Muslims who died in 1258. So while the opening “Don Cherry’s Electric Sonic Garden” is a 20-minute funk jam, the two-part “The Dhikr of Radiant Hearts” feels more like Davis’ “He Loved Him Madly” crossed with John Coltrane’s “Love Consequences Serenity” from Meditations. The balance between groove and gentle exploration is retained throughout both discs of this nearly two-hour set, and while listening to it as a marathon session may be challenging, there’s not a moment here that feels ill-conceived or superfluous. This is a masterwork by one of the great heroes of American avant-garde jazz.
Phil Freeman (AllMusic)
