WADADA LEO SMITH — Wadada Leo Smith & Bill Laswell ‎: The Stone (review)

WADADA LEO SMITH — Wadada Leo Smith & Bill Laswell ‎: The Stone album cover Live album · 2014 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
snobb
One of Chicago avant-garde jazz icon, Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) early member (from 1967),composer & musical theorist,trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith during last decade enjoys exclusive attention from advanced jazz and contemporary music fans. Only during last five years he released twelve new albums(including three double and one 4xCD set),all of good or excellent quality. His last year's "Great Lakes Suites"(TUM Records) is one of most often mentioned advanced albums in all possible 2014 year's top lists.

Bassist,sound experimenter and producer Bill Laswell is not less known person in the world of adventurous music. He is one of most respectable musicians in the field of jazz / improvisation related dub, has long lasting history collaborating with John Zorn and other New York down town leading artists.

Smith/Laswell live duo album, recorded during Laswell's residence in New York's The Stone in 2014,can easily slip unnoticed even by attentive fans since it's released as digital file only on Laswell's own M.O.D. Technologies label. It would be a real loss since it contains really great music.

Quite surprisingly for music,recorded and produced by Laswell, this one 38-minutes long composition doesn't contain many electronics and recording studio technological tricks.What we have here is liquid dark Laswell ambient bass pulsation and Wadada's fantastic trumpet piercing over it. Music is dark but far not depressive, even spacious, and all long musical piece somehow recalls Wadada's "The Great Lakes Suite". Same nature's monumental greatness, same almost pathetic simplicity,just in more minimalist form.For my great surprise two excellent but very different artists sound absolutely organic here presenting gorgeous music which is accessible and have a high lasting impact.

This release should not be missed by anyone who enjoyed Wadada's "Suites..." as well as anyone,interested in modern cross-genre advanced music.
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