Wadada Leo Smith’s symphonies

Trumpeter Leo Wadada Smith has written several symphonies for jazz quartet which now is recorded by himself, Henry Threadgill, Jack DeJohnette, and John Lindberg.

Leo Wadada Smith – The Chicago Symphonies (Tum, 2021)

Leo Wadada Smith, trumpet; Henry Threadgill, alto saxophone and flutes, or Johnathon Haffner, alto and soprano saxophones; John Lindberg, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith will turn 80 this year and his output for this celebration has been massive. There is a three-disc set of solo trumpet, and another three-disc set with bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Milford Graves. Now comes this four-disc set of four symphonies.

Symphonies? Yes, that is what Smith calls them even if they are performed by a quartet of two horn players and a rhythm section. When Mary Lou Williams and Sonny Rollins recorded this kind of pieces in the 1940s and 1950s, they were called suites. Maybe symphony is a more accurate name since Smith explores longer musical forms in four or five parts here just as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Ludwig van Beethoven did in the past.

I do not know to which degree this music is written down or improvised. My guess is it that it blends written ensemble passages with improvisations. If you ever have been to one of Smith’s concert you have seen him conducting his band with gestures to get the musical effect he is after. So, I guess he is as much a conductor as a composer.

From suites to symphonies

For this recording Smith has assembled musicians which he has worked a lot with which is another way of getting the musical result you are after. With the quartet of reed player Henry Threadgill, bassist John Lindberg, and drummer Jack DeJohnette he recorded his The Great Lakes Suite (2014), a suite in six parts about the great lakes of the USA. So, they come prepared to perform his new symphonies.

They all have the musical experience and originality to keep the dynamics happening in longer musical forms as this by playing both subtle and intense. On some of the more dramatic up-tempo playing they can remind me of how the Wayne Shorter Quartet has the ability to play really intense at times and then suddenly shift down and play really subtle passages.

On the last of the four symphonies Henry Threadgill are replaced by younger soprano and alto saxophonist Johnathon Haffner. He sets a partly different tone than Threadgill reminding me of the individual’s contribution to this music conceived by Smith.

I do not know what the lasting value of these particular symphonies will be but I am sure that Smith’s music will be seen as a continuation of the one created by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. By using the symphony form usually associated with western music I think that he is saying that the musical tradition he represents is equally important even if there are differences between the two.