feature photo: R.I. Sutherland-Cohen
The man just won’t quit. Months away from his 80th birthday, Wadada Leo Smith’s creative fountain is overflowing. Today — May 21, 2021 — he delivers new recordings: not one, not two but three CD discs worth of fresh, new recordings. No, wait, make that two 3-CD box sets of new material out today, both from TUM Records.
One of these releases is an astonishing set of improvised pieces performed with his trumpet alone called, natch, Trumpet. But let’s take a deeper dive into his other latest epic, encounters with Bill Laswell and the late Milford Graves entitled Sacred Ceremonies.
Sacred Ceremonies is dedicated to the great drummer Graves, who passed away in February, 2021. However, the recordings were made in 2015 & 2016, a couple years ago before Graves was to be diagnosed with the heart disease that would eventually end his life at 79. These recordings were made as Smith one-on-one with Smith, then bass innovator Laswell and then with both. Each of these three encounters were accomplished in one-day recording sessions.
Disc 1 documents the session between Smith and Graves, where the two occupy opposite ends of tonal areas and tactics. The first thing to notice about the three parts of “Nyoto” is that lack of bass becomes very noticeable, because Graves does not attempt to fill that void as most drummers would. Instead, he metes out African-derived rhythms that makes Smith’s trumpet incantations feel more like chants. Graves turns his drum set into a cultural experience, making one even forget he’s playing the drums.
Though Smith composed and brought most of the musical material into the studio, it’s actually Graves who defines the characters of these songs for the most part, and he does it because he can come up with such unique pulses for each song, coming up with two of them for “Baby Dodds in Congo Square.”
“Celebration Rhythms” and “Poetic Sonics” didn’t exist before what is heard here, because they’re Smith-Graves improvs. The trumpeter tosses aside measured tones for impulse, connecting to the drummer that on the composed tracks, using Graves as his touchpoint. “The Poet- Play Ebody, Play Ivory (Dedicated to Henry Dumas)” is a pean to the 1960s African-American poet and writer. Graves scraping of the cymbal set against Smith pure, lonely tones casts a peaceful, melancholy feeling against a backdrop of tension.
The second disc pairs Smith with Laswell, on electric bass. But Laswell is not merely a bassist, he’s an elite sonic architect and even though he plays no other instrument, he can still sonically sculpt a song. Take “Ascending the Sacred Waterfall – A Ceremonial Practice,” for instance, where his bass gurgles, chimes and with tactical use of effects, forms an almost synth-like backdrop for Smith’s resonant trumpet.
For “Prince – The Blue Diamond Spirit,” Laswell supplements a simple riff with an additional bass wandering in a higher register, acting occasionally as Smith’s foil. On the second part, Smith turns more aggressive and Laswell turns up the sonic atmospheric machine. Smith does step aside for Laswell toward the end of “Donald Ayler’s Rainbow Summit,” but even here, Laswell is careful to not break out of the chilled-out vibe he built around the leader. Smith’s muted trumpet on “Tony Williams” has a little swing to it, as Laswell’s rumbling bass echoes behind him.
The enigmatic “Mysterious Night” and the remaining two performances after it are Smith/Laswell improvisations; Laswell and Smith boldly bound forward into the dark ether for “Earth – A Morning Song” and “Minnie Ripperton – The Chicago Bronzeville Master Blaster” apparently not knowing where it will lead but that uncertainty engenders inventiveness out of necessity. There’s a total change of direction during the middle of the latter piece when Laswell comes upon a new figure out of nowhere while searching/soloing.
The final disc combines the collective, massive talents of all three. In a reversal of the other two discs, the four group improvs by this trio are front-loaded though you’re apt not to be able to tell that they’re made up on the spot because of the strong affinity going on. Graves’ restive groove establishes “Social Justice-A Fire for Reimagining the World” and Laswell limits himself to just a few notes that keeps the root firmly tethered to enable Smith’s flights.
There are many extemporaneous performances but it’s not until “Myths of Civilizations and Revolutions” where something resembling free jazz in the traditional sense is encountered, but even here there’s harmony and purpose. Laswell, ever the close listener, bridges the wide divide between Graves’ eruptive drums and Smith’s sharp, controlled and considered delivery.
Graves, who is an anomalous rhythm creation factory, comes up with another one for “Truth in Expansion,” providing fertile ground for both Laswell and Smith to ruminate over. The unrelenting energy in Graves’ drumming fills the yawning spaces left behind by Smith and Laswell on “The Healer’s Direct Energy,” and the bifurcation is what makes each part stand out more.
“Waves of Elevated Horizontal Forces” kicks off with ethereal moods from Laswell and Smith for nearly three minutes after which Graves comes in and causes a groove with otherworldly tom-toms work. “An Epic Journey Inside the Center of Color” provides a taste of what makes Trumpet an extraordinary solo trumpet album, as Smith sets up the song with an unaccompanied performance of uncommon profundity.
“Ruby Red Largo – A Sonnet” isn’t an Indian raga but moves like one, with its drone-like and percussive elements that renders that spirituality Smith is always aspiring for in every one of his songs.
Sacred Ceremonies is a divine communion among legends but it’s also yet another ambitious statement from an artist who produces lofty works with so many different accomplices on a regular basis. The amazing thing is that at the cusp of his ninth decade, Wadada Leo Smith doesn’t appear to be anywhere near artistically exhausted. Neither did Milford Graves, which makes his passing all the more tragic.
- Wolf Eyes + Anthony Braxton – ‘live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023’ (2025) - January 30, 2025
- Steve Smith and Vital Information, “Don’t Stop Believin'” (2025): One Track Mind - January 29, 2025
- Keiji Haino + Natsuki Tamura – ‘What Happened There?’ (2025) - January 15, 2025
