Wadada Leo Smith - The Great Lakes Suites

[CraigP]

Wadada Leo Smith has recently released The Great Lakes Suites on TUM Records. Here's an excerpt of my review:

“I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this when I learned who was on it, an all-star quartet with Henry Threadgill, John Lindberg and Jack DeJohnette. But beyond the players, it’s the strength of the compositions, particularly the three suites that comprise the first CD, that grabs one’s attention.

The opening Lake Michigan has an unusual and arresting stop-start theme, with a structure that leads to a couple of false endings over its length…There’s a sense throughout that the musicians are really taking their time to explore each suite, so that the mind doesn’t really record whether the tempos are fast or slow; everything flows in an organic fashion through to the final track, the music shuffling off like a freighter moving out to the horizon.

Mr. Smith’s trumpet has always had a majestic quality, with a little hint of Miles, and that is still the case here, but now there’s an additional richness, an emotional resonance, that I don’t remember hearing from him before. I was looking forward to hearing Threadgill in a context other than his own groups, and he doesn’t disappoint. His solos seem to be…about juxtaposing interesting textures and building blocks of sound in interaction with the other players…

It’s a treat to hear Lindberg and DeJohnette, both of whom just kill throughout the Suites. I don’t know why we don’t see more of Lindberg, but I’m glad Smith uses him regularly, and DeJohnette is all over his kit, bringing to mind his hyperactive work with Miles during the Fillmore days.”

You can read the full review of The Great Lakes Suites on my blog. Anyone else heard this? I'm curious what others think.

Edited October 18, 2014 by CraigP

[jlhoots]

I have it. Agree it's excellent.

There's another new Wadada CD on Rare Noise that's fine too - but much different.

[JSngry]

Where is this readily available? Amazon is out of stock, and Dusty Groove has yet to stock it.

[Chuck Nessa]

Got mine from Amazon a few weeks back in spite of Wadada telling me a free copy was coming. Be patient.

[7/4]

This looks good.

[jlhoots]

Got mine from Amazon a few weeks back in spite of Wadada telling me a free copy was coming. Be patient.

Amazon for me.

Nobody offered me a free copy.

[ATR]

I barely have time to catch up with all the new recordings Wadada has done. Nice to hear Jack DeJohnette in a somewhat more free musical environment, although that's no knock on everything else he does. The music puts me in mind of The Golden Quartet series, albeit with a second horn instead of keyboard. I need to backtrack to the duets with Moholo. I don't think I listened to that one enough. And Occupy the World is stunning.

[Larry Kart]

Just listened to "Lake Michigan." Great to hear Threadgill in this context. The sound of Smith's trumpet is one of jazz's great "sounds," at once so expressive and... not sure if this is the right word, calm.

[CraigP]

Just listened to "Lake Michigan." Great to hear Threadgill in this context. The sound of Smith's trumpet is one of jazz's great "sounds," at once so expressive and... not sure if this is the right word, calm.

Majestic, perhaps?

[JSngry]

Thanks for upping this. It's been reavailabled at Amazon. Glad to have had 1 finger with which to 1-Click.

[Stefan Wood]

It's a nice album. It's a rich, textured album, that reminds me more of Miles than anything that Smith has done, even more than the Yo Miles! albums.

[Larry Kart]

Just listened to "Lake Michigan." Great to hear Threadgill in this context. The sound of Smith's trumpet is one of jazz's great "sounds," at once so expressive and... not sure if this is the right word, calm.

Majestic, perhaps?

[colinmce]

It's weighted. What Ran Blake can do with the piano, Wadada can do with the trumpet.

[JSngry]

My copy finally arrived...my gracious, this is some...weighty (indeed) music.

I pray that I will someday be able phrase almost as effectively and efficiently (combined) as Henry Threadgill, not just in music, but in life, period. The more space you leave, the more significant what you finally do play needs to be, or else you're just going to sound out of the zone instead of in it. Smith, yes, he does this too, but Threadgill, in my hearing, is damn near...violent in his silences and their eventual breakings. Not necessarily violent as in malevolent, just...violent like a shock that you know is coming, just not when, and the more you know its coming, eventually, the less ready you are when it actually does.

Seems like Jack is conspicuously returning to his Chicago/AACM roots as of late. Very glad that he is, but is there any specific motivation at play here?

A superb record, flawlessly recorded to boot. Where TF is effective American distribution?

[colinmce]

One too many runs through "You, And The Night, and The Music". He finally cracked.

[Clunky]

Annoyingly my order was cancelled , so I've had to re-order. Only recently picked up Occupy the World and I'm pretty overwhelmed by it's incredible vision and scale. It's just a massive record in every way. It really must be heard. If Great Lakes is half as good then I'll be delighted. I gathered all my WLS discs together and couldn't believe just how many I had. He's been consistently interesting and challenging for so long.

[David Ayers]

And another euro-label triumph - in this case for the admirably focussed TUM Records in Finland. Their model involves support from music foundations and other sponsors, and mainly releases by Finnish musicians, with some collaborations (such as Occupy the World) and some entirely non-Finnish contributions (such as this one). Yet another euro-label that has found a way to do it....

[A Lark Ascending]

TUM are a marvellous label - just a bit difficult to locate at times. I was looking for this last week and found it very difficult to track down a source. Ended up ordering via Amazon from the USA.

Hopefully listeners who have enjoyed Occupy the World will check out some of the other musicians there. The Juhani Aaltonen discs on TUM are tremendous.

[David Ayers]

Props for Aaltonen. Like Kalevi Aho, who we discussed in another thread, he was a recipient of one of those lavish fifteen year government arts grants. So no excuse for not being good!

[David Ayers]

I'll add that TUM maintain an exemplary website with full artist biographies and so on. You can't order from their site though!