Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet

P r e s s R e v i e w s

Wadada Leo Smith

Reflectativity TZADIK 7060 CD

Golden Quartet TZADIK 7604 CD

Reflectativity is a remake of an album Leo Smith released on his own label in 1975. For many cushily established panjandrums, such revision would be a recipe for disaster Not so here.

Brought up on the blues, from the start Smith refused to be patronised by being relegated to a style. He embraced a wide open, modernist aesthetic, allowing his trumpet licks maximum freedom to engage in interplay with his colleagues.

Ambitious goals -- global musicality, event/structure dialectic, performative immediacy - meant a lifetime in academia (New Haven, Woodstock, CalArts) hasn't erased the plangency that is the test of an improvisor's willingness to stake everything on this note being played here and now.

Recorded with Anthony Davis (piano) and Malachi Favors (bass) in a NYC studio in January 2000, this new Reflectativity is so chill, pure and pared down it will probably only reach listeners who can tolerate free improvisation or the works of Morton Feldman. This is a pity, because at its core is a singing, dancing, groovacious trumpet voice. Smith doesn't so much sum up the history of his instrument as provide an independent understanding of field holler and hokum break as critical modern art Harmonic surprise and acute use of silence leaves no listener secure Reflectativity dices everything you think you know about blues and jazz, then hangs the motifs out on a line The brightness and definition dazzle.

Just to show Reflectativity isn't all our man can do, Golden Quartet adds drummer Jack DeJohnette to the trio. The group becomes something else entirely a fleet, state of the art jazz quartet. The current scene is suffering from a surfeit of blustering, Ayler-fixated saxophonists this is the antidote, being hairraisingly fine in the beat department, but also speculative and crammed with ideas. DeJohnette has been involved with much fusion stodge, but here he's utterly at home and sounding vibrant. Golden Quartet isn't as sublime as Reflectativity, but the balance between groove thrust and internal dialogue is brilliant. Smith's silvery trumpet cuts through with unbelievable power and finesse, and everyone sounds alert. These musicians are still surprising each other - the deal is real.

Ben Watson
The Wire Magazine [UK]

Trumpeter Smith has assembled a quartet with pianist Anthony Davis, bassist Malachi Favors Maghoustous, and drummer Jack DeJohnette that lives up to its all-star billing. Smith can speak volumes with a single note. His spare, meditative solos emphasize color, texture, and space over melody. Davis, on busman's holiday from penning operas, orchestrates with the piano, filling in around Smith's notes with linear counterpoint and dense chords that deepen and refine the emotional impact of the music. Like Smith, Favors also knows how to make every note count, although he's more concerned with melodic development than the trumpeter. On "The Healer's Voyage on the Sacred River," Favor's focused intimacy strikes at the heart in a bracingly direct and unembellished solo that contrasts with the often oblique compositions. DeJohnette gives one of his best all-around performances on record, pumping muscle and blood into the body of the music. His combination of subtlety and power heightens the gentle strength of "Harumi," keeps the multi-sectioned "Celestial Sky and All the Magic: A Memorial for Lester Bowie" flowing smoothly, and injects polyrhythmic energy into "America's Third Century Spiritual Awakening."

Smith's compositions make maximum use of the quartet's resources, and the quartet pulls together like a working band to plumb the mystical depths of Smith's unique music. For example, "Celestial Sky" opens with a crisply swinging trio of Smith, Favors, and DeJohnette and evolves through various duo and trio combinations, changes in tempo and beat, and collages of fragmented melody, tone color, and rhythm. Smith is working at his highest level since the mid '70s. This quartet - with its combination of maturity, craftsmanship, and sense of adventure - is the perfect band to realize Smith's deepening vision.

Ed Hazell
Boston Globe

Enlisting drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Malachi Favors, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith had to have been tempted to make Golden Quartet explode with grooves--especially with the CD's opener, titled "DeJohnette." Instead, pianist Anthony Davis and Smith keep the harmonic and melodic gears pulled loose so the band jangles and gets steam and then explodes, only to reset, disperse, and go wild again. Smith's Golden Quartet has the bearings and chops of a supergroup, undoubtedly, and they use their collective power forcefully and to great result--heading into thickets of spread-open space with expansive patience. They go from free-time ruminations to a fittingly sly march cadence on "Celestial Sky and All the Magic: A Memorial for Lester Bowie," and make "The Healer's Voyage on the Sacred River" a terrific modal ballad. It's not until the last tune, "America's Third Century Spiritual Awakening," that the quartet launches off, with DeJohnette locking into a rhythmic rumble that takes Smith skyward in a slurry, bright, and fast show of genius. Here's a band of veterans jelling anew and never sacrificing the collective good for the benefit of an individual.

Andrew Bartlet
Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com