21 Mar

[ March the 21st, 2025 release on ECM Records: Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith – Defiant Life ]

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release date: 21.03.2025 on ECM records

Defiant Life, Smith’s powerful second duo album with Vijay Iyer, is out today, March 21 via ECM

” A shared awareness of human cruelty and its inability to permanently erase its opposition suffuses every note” – Bill Meyer, The Wire

“Sublime, meditative…a calming masterpiece” – Jim Hynes, Glide

“Disciplined, solemn music by two masters of communication that provides a serious response to serious issues” – Kevin Le Genre, Jazzwise / Editors Choice

This recording session was conditioned by our ongoing sorrow and outrage over the past year’s cruelties, but also by our faith in human possibility. – Vijay Iyer

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06 Nov

[ November the 19th, 2021 realizes via TUM Records: Wadada Leo Smith’s year-long celebration of his 80th birthday, following 3rd box: The Chicago Symphonies & A Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday Trio Session ]

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release date: 19.11.2021

TUM Records continuous celebrating Wadada Leo Smith’s 80th Birthday Year!

 

TUM Records releases another two stunning new projects on November 19, 2021 from iconic trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith as he approaches his 80th birthday. They include his Great Lakes Quartet (Smith, Threadgill, Lindberg, DeJohnette) in The Chicago Symphonies (4 CDs), and Smith, Iyer and DeJohnette in A Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday.  These are the second batch of TUM releases celebrating Smith’s birthday. All together there are six projects totaling 22 CDs.

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08 Oct

[ Special Event on Thursday, October 14th,2021 – World premiere of Wadada Leo Smith’s new work “Mercy” ]

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© Dominik Huber

Groundbreaking composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith celebrates his 80th birthday with a year of special events including “A Dialogue: Creativity and Mercy with a Reflection on the Role of the Artist in Today’s World,” Harvard University’s Louis C. Elson Lecture delivered virtually at 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 14.

The event features the world premiere of Smith’s new work “Mercy,” composed in honor of essential hospital workers and performed by Smith, Vijay Iyer and Andrew Cyrille. Smith and Iyer will also participate in a virtual conversation followed by a Q&A session. Free and open to the public. To register, visit https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aocX9uKMSNyfhbLIA3F4hA.

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