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

13 Nov

[ November the 15th, 2024 release via Long Song Records: Joe Fonda Quartet – Eyes on the Horizon ]

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Eyes on the Horizon, bassist/composer Joe Fonda’s powerful tribute to his former teacher and mentor Wadada Leo Smith, will be released on November 15, 2024 via Long Song Records.

Featuring Fonda, Smith, pianist Satoko Fujii, and drummer Tiziano Tononi, it is a gift given by a mature artist out of respect to another whose example of artistic integrity, perseverance, and ongoing creativity continues to inspire him to this day.

“a real virtuoso and composer of the highest order.” — Anthony Braxton

“Fonda is a serious seeker of new musical horizons.” — Boston Phoenix

27 Mar

[ 31 March, 2023 release via Kabell Records: Wadada Leo Smith’s Orange Wave Electric Ensemble – Fire Illuminations ]

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release date: 31.03.2023 via Kabell Records.

Legendary trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith debuts his new ensemble Orange Wave Electric with an exhilarating new digital album Fire Illuminations, available March 31, 2023 via Kabell Records. Joining Smith are an electric band with guitarists Nels Cline, Brandon Ross and Lamar Smith; bassists Bill Laswell and Melvin Gibbs; electronic musician Hardedge; percussionist Mauro Refosco; and drummer Pheeroan akLaff.

“Wadada Leo Smith has played an outsize role in American experimental music for the last 50 years.” – Seth Colter Walls, New York Times

“In a half-century of recording, [Wadada Leo Smith] has never stopped exploring the parameters of the form and instrument.” – Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz

27 Feb

[ Iconic composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters ]

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Iconic composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith is one of nineteen new members and four honorary members who will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters during its annual Ceremonial on May 24, 2023. During the ceremony, the Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, who is being inducted into Foreign Honorary membership, will deliver the keynote address.

14 Jun

[ June the 17th, 202 realizes via TUM Records: Wadada Leo Smith’s year-long celebration of his 80th birthday, following 4th and 5th boxes: String Quartets Nos. 1-12 & Emerald Duets ]

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release date: 19.11.2021

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

As part of the conclusion of its celebration of the 80th Anniversary of Wadada Leo Smith, TUM Records brings out the most extensive release of Smith’s recorded output to date, String Quartets Nos. 1-12. It is a seven-CD boxed set recorded by RedKoral Quartet and special guests comprising the first 12 of Smith’s string quartets and The Emerald Duets is a five-CD boxed set that includes Smith’s collaborations with four leading drummers of our time, Pheeroan akLaff, Andrew Cyrille, Han Bennink and Jack DeJohnette

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.

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 80^th 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.

07 Jun

[ June the 10th, 2021: Wadada’s 80th birthday celebration: CSO & Wadada Leo Smith – Delta Blues – World premiere! ]

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Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association presents world premiere of new work by legendary composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith

Delta Blues is part of CSO Sessions Episode 21: Cult of Electromagnetic Connectivity, available on CSOtv starting Thursday, June 10

The event is part of Smith’s year-long celebration of his 80^th birthday

12 May

[ May the 21st, 2021 realizes via TUM Records: Wadada Leo Smith’s year-long celebration of his 80th birthday , Two major boxes: Sacred Ceremonies & Trumpet ]

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release date: 21.05.2021

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

Throughout 2021, TUM Records will celebrate the coming 80th birthday of renowned composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith with a series of new releases showcasing his monumental artistic vision. The yearlong celebration kicks off on May 21 with a pair of three-CD boxed sets, one an inspiring solo trumpet recording captured in a beautiful historic setting (Trumpet), the other a meeting of three true masters, Smith, Bill Laswell and Milford Graves (Sacred Ceremonies).

29 Apr

[ May, the 3rd, 2021,11 am-11:30 am EDT, Livestream – Wadada Leo Smith’s Symphony No. 2 Winter in a live streamed, multi-location presentation ]

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May 3, 11 am-11:30 am EDT – Register for Livestream

The inaugural MM Performer-Composer class will perform Wadada Leo Smith‘s Symphony No. 2 Winter in a live streamed, multi-location presentation. The performance is part of the Performer-Composer Stone Lab, a workshop led by artists-in-residence at The Stone, “a not-for-profit performance initiative dedicated to the experimental and avant-garde.”

The new Performer-Composer Master of Music (MM) degree at The New School’s College of Performing Arts is designed for musicians whose passion lies at the intersection of composition, performance, and improvisation.