Wadada Leo Smith: Kulture Jazz (ECM, 1993)
This album is something like the musical equivalent of someone building his own house or boat or sewing his own clothes. It is Wadada Leo Smith alone in the studio playing trumpet, harmonica, bamboo flute, percussions, Asian and African instruments and singing.
The music is very personal and at times almost has a meditative quality. On “Love Supreme (For John Coltrane)” Smith plays the well-known theme from Coltrane´s A Love Supreme on the African instrument mbira, while he sings his own lyrics which reflects his own personal belief in Rastafari and plays some overdubbed muted trumpet.
His native Mississippi is evoked in “Mississippi Delta Sunrise (For Bobbie)” which gets a most Asian rural flavor because it is a solo performance on the Japanese string instrument Koto.
His “The Kemet Omega Reigns (For Billie Holiday)” is several overdubbed counterpoint lines played on trumpet with introspective and sometimes vocal qualities. The effect is startling and beautiful. “Louis Armstrong Counterpointing” is another performance of several overdubbed trumpets but much more expressive, probably reflecting the different personality of Armstrong. “Albert Ayler in A Spiritual Light” is a most soulful solo trumpet performance, which is interluded by a short harmonica solo by Smith, which strangely enough sounds all of a piece.
The 13 songs on the album are all between three or five minutes long and are both varied and functions well as a whole. I can’t think of another album quite like this one.
Jazz Desk 