Saxophonist Tony Malaby's incredible Tamarindo trio with William Parker on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums is transformed to a quartet with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, performing live in NYC, 2010.

NY based pianist Angelica Sanchez in a stunning and intimate duo with legendary free improv trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, an album of superb conversation that flows naturally from their work together in Leo Smith's projects Golden Quartet and Organic.

"A relentless music innovator since his early days in the Chicago AACM, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most consistenly creative composer/performers in new music. In his sixth Tzadik release he once again explores new territory, bringing f...

Tzadik's new Spectrum series begins with the collaboration of 3 legendary NY performers--Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet); George Lewis (trombone); John Zorn (alto sax)--in 8 technically superb and joyfully unique compositions and collective improvisations.

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith composed these 5 works inspired by the Occupy movement for the 22-piece orchestra TUMO, an improvising orchestra that is assembled specifically for each project they participate in.

Outstanding compositions and performances on a 2 disc set from trumpeter Leo Smith, each piece dedicated to one of the US Great Lakes, with multi-wind player Henry Threadgill, bassist John Lindberg, and drummer Jack DeJohnette, a milestone in a superlative career!

Drawing on American creative music, Mbira music of Zimbabwe, and traditional Chinese music, trumpeter Leo Smith's ensemble with drummer Pheeroan akLaff and pipa player Min Xiao-Fen perform 5 extraordinary compositions of lyrical vision.

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and double bassist John Lindberg met in NYC to record this set of suites using an incredibly emotional palate of melodic, technical, and free playing, on a 2-part work for Malachi Favors, a 5-part "Celestial Weather Suite", and a 2-part "Feathers and Earth".

Unreleased for more than 39 years, these remarkably creative live solo performances on trumpet, flugelhorn, flute, steelophone, percussion and gongs from improvisor and composer Wadada Leo Smith were recorded in Los Angeles in 1977, during his visionary Kabell Records years.

A live performance at Judson Church in Manhattan as part of the 20th Vision Festival from the NY/France free improvising trio of Joelle Leandre on double bass, Mat Maneri on viola, and Gerald Cleaver on drums and percussion, two tracks of steadily building, incredibly compatible dialog.

The complete performance at the 2010 Freedom of the City festival by the 38-member LIO with guest Wadada Leo Smith and conductions by Alison Blunt, Steve Beresford, Philipp Wachsmann, Caroline Kraabel, and Dave Tucker.

Paying tribute to musicians whose vision paved the way for modern creative players to use new approaches, language and philosophy in improvisation, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's band with four guitarists, electric bass, drums and percussion dedicates five incredible compositions to Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Billie Holiday.

An intimate album of solo trumpet from Wadada Leo Smith, performing compositions by Thelonious Monk, Smith professing in an essay in the accompanying booklet that he was motivated to become a composer by Monk above other contemporaries for his ideas of composition and bands; his admiration and love of Monk's work is clear in this beautifully lyrical album.

Reissuing Otic Records' 1976 LP "The Haunt" led by Bobby Naughton on vibes in a trio with Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet, and Perry Robinson on clarinet, very much in the India Navigation / loft scene vein of forward-thinking free improvisation: spacious and thoughtful as the players meticulously develop their concepts with uncompromising skill and artistry.

Inspired by the civil rights movement and the iconic Rosa Parks, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's album pays tribute through impressive compositional skills that merge work with RedKoral Quartet, Blue Trumpet Quartet, Diamond Voices, and Janus duo, featuring excerpts from Anthony Braxton, Steve McCall, Leroy Jenkins, and words from Martin Luther King Jr and a text by Rosa Parks.

The 2nd of two 3-CD sets released as trumpeter Wadada Leo nears his 80th birthday, these albums were recorded in 2015 & 2016 in bassist Bill Laswell's studio, the first presenting the duo of Smith and late drummer Milford Graves, the second a duo with Laswell, those discs leading to the expansive and outstanding full trio of Smith, Laswell & Graves on the final disc.

Pure Wadada Leo Smith in a 3-CD box set of solo recordings from 2016 captured at and using the natural resonance of the St. Mary's Church in the town of Pohja, on the Southern Coast of Finland, presenting fourteen new compositions, including four extended multi-part works, as Smith demonstrates his incredible authority, investigative spirit and spiritual approach to the horn.

Interpreting trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's Ankhrasmation graphic score--the term joining the Egyptian symbol for life, the Ethiopian word for leader and the universal term for mother--Smith and guitarists Alex Varty & Henry Kaiser use the rich combination of visual cues and musical notation to record this rapturous and unduplicable album of profound and engaging improvisation.

One of two albums marking trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's 80th birthday, and showing his creative and technical skills still in peak form, here in a trio for the first time uniting independent collaborators, pianist & keyboardist Vijay Iyer and drummer Jack DeJohnette, in compositions from each of the performers plus one collective improvisation.

Inspired by Don Cherry's 1966 Symphony For Improvisers and intended to illustrate the profound cultural contributions Chicagoans & Midwesterners have made, trumpeter Leo Smith's presents four expansive symphonies, three performed with Henry Threadgill (sax & flute), John Lindberg (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums), the fourth with Jonathon Haffner (sax) plus Smith, Lindberg and DeJohnette.

Since 1965 Wadada Leo Smith has developed string quartets influenced by a diverse set of composers including Ornette Coleman, Claude Debussy, Howlin' Wolf, Scott Joplin, Olly Wilson, &c. heard here in 12 Quartets from 3 major periods of his work, compositions exploring the African-American experience, with scores that leave room for interpretation and expression from his players.

Part of his 80th Anniversary celebration and subtitled "The Art Of The Trumpeter And Drummers", this 5-CD box set brings legendary improviser Wadada Leo Smith together with four long-time collaborators and masterful drummers--Andrew Cyrille, Jack DeJohnette, Pheeroan akLaff and Han Bennink--with Smith performing on both piano and trumpet.

An incredible double CD from trumpeter Leo Smith's Organic with Michael Gregory, Pheeroan AkLaff, Angelica Sanchez, Skuli Sverrisson, Brandon Ross, &c &c... incredible electric and acoustic jazz from the legendary improviser and innovator!

The incredibly creative EUPHORIUM_freakestra as a mid-size ensemble performing at naTo in Leipzig, Germany are joined by legendary free jazz players, Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet and Barre Phillip on double bass, extending the incredible assemblage of players including Oliver Schwerdt, Axel Dorner, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Urs Leimgruber, Christian Lillinger, Gunter Baby Sommer & Michael Haves.

Drummer Ibarra's trio with Cooper-Moore and violinist Charles Burnham blur boundaries in a band of great versatility, taste and collective musicianship.

An excellent collection of solo acoustic guitar improvisations by Roger Smith that were digitally recorded at home in London during January, 2002.

Inspired by the Gnostic philosophies of the Nag Hammadi library, Zorn invokes the mystical journey of the soul through the bardo as a tribute to the passing of Lou Reed, presented by his Gnostic Trio of Bill Frisell, Kenny Wollesen, and Carol Emanuel, plus guests.

Chimaera is the ensemble of Sylvie Courvoisier on piano, her core trio with Drew Gress on bass, Kenny Wollesen on drums & vibraphone, expanded by two trumpeters--Wadada Leo Smith & Nate Wooley--and affected by Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz who provides sonic backdrops for the improvisations over Courvoisier's compositions, focusing on aura over pyrotechnics; absolutely sublime.

NY/East Coast Jazz vocalist Kosi presents her 5th album, a rewarding album of original songs that depict her experiences touring as an independent singer-songwriter through jazz idioms influenced by blues and rock forms, her strong voice emotional and expressive while supported by a core sextet of New York musicians; lyrical, solid, passionate.

The unexpected and open-minded quartet of Pauline Oliveros, Roscoe Mitchell, John Tilbury and Wadada Leo Smith performing live in Italy at the Angelika Festival in 2011, presenting the three part improvised work "Nessuno"; delicate, virtuosic, rewarding music from 4 masters.

Originally proposed to ECM in 1979 and rejected, the duo of legendary trumpeter Smith and drummer DeJohnette pushes each other into remarkable and telepathic interplay.

From 1971-1979 Wadada Leo Smith released four albums on his own, privately pressed label Kabell, now remastered and coupled with over two hours of unreleased bonus tracks.

The improvising string duo of stalwart London improvisers, Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitar and Phil Durrant on the octave mandola, are heard in two settings of texturally rich, intricate interactions, first at Cafe OTO in 2022 for an extended improvisation, then at Cable Street Studios two months later for six succint, impressively diverse dialogs.

Delicately forceful, the live concert at Real Art Ways, in Hartford, Connecticut as part of the ImprovisatioNOW concert series, is a perfect encounter between two legendary New York improvisers--trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and guitarist Joe Morris--capturing five dialogs of impressive technique and creative expression, including references to Monk and Ma Rainey.