Wadada Leo Smith - Occupy The World '2013

Tracks list

Great trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smiths five epic extended compositions
collected on the double album Occupy The World mark him as a major American
composer with a musical language and artistic vision that transcends the
boundaries of the Afro-American heritage of jazz. Smith wrote complex orchestral
works before, most notably on the masterful, extensive 4-discs Ten Freedom
Summers (Cuneiform, 2012), that addressed political and historical issues still,
the expanded and rearranged works represent a new musical triumph within the
already large body of compositions of this prolific and gifted musician.
Smiths confounded complex written segments were arranged for a 22- piece Nordic
ensemble—TUMO, or Todella Uuden Musiikin Orkesteri (in English, the
Really New Music Orchestra), augmented with Smiths close collaborator, bassist
John Lindberg—with conducted and collective improvised parts. This
musical meeting enables Smith to apply and mix compositional and conducted
improvisation methods that he experienced and employed as a player with the
large ensembles organized by Chicago´s AACM in the 1960s, Anthony
Braxton´s Creative Music Orchestra in the 1970s, the early free improvised
meetings of the European Company, the sophisticated orchestral concepts of other
European ensembles as Globe Unity Orchestra and Barry Guy orchestras and his own
15-member Silver Orchestra.
The collaboration with TUMO is inspired from beginning to end. TUMO performed
for the first time at the TUM records affiliated TUM festival in Helsinki,
Finland, in February 2012 under the leadership of Smith. TUMO is not intended to
become an institutionalized orchestra, but a loose aggregation of musicians with
a shared interest in creative improvised music. TUMO has developed a very strong
North European identity, temperament and sound that is different from any other
ensemble that Smith has worked with before, including its approach to rhythm, a
key element in Smiths composition, improvisation and articulation. This ensemble
features some of the leading and most creative improvisers in Finland and the
Nordic region, coming from different generations and backgrounds, many of them
leaders of their own bands and composers in their own right, among them Finnish
trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, saxophonist Mikko Innanen, flutist Juhani Aaltonen,
harpist Iro Haarla with Swedish saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist and Danish
drummer Stefan Pasborg.
The five compositions reflect on Smiths history as a musician, his interests and
his unique concepts of balancing between multiple composed and improvised
shapes. The first composition, Queen Hatshepsut, is dedicated to the fifth
pharaoh in ancient Egypt (1508- -1458 BC), the first true female ruler of a
major civilization in world history. This dramatic composition attempts to
mirror the majestic and ceremonial royal courts of Egypt through three sections
that involve composite scores that are used to construct their spontaneous
individual improvisations, often with Eastern-tinged flavors. The second
composition is a new and expanded arrangement of Smiths composition for Braxtons
quartet from 3 Compositions of New Jazz (Delmark, 1968). The new version
contrasts the imaginative usage of electronics played by Pohjola with the varied
sonic spectrums of each the instrumental families, while featuring impressive
solos by Smith, Kalima, tuba player Kenneth Ojutkangas and Pohjola, now on
trumpet. Mount Kilimanjaro (Love And Compassion For John Lindberg), that
concludes the first disc, is a sister composition to Smiths The Africana World,
which was recorded by the Silver Orchestra. This intense composition stresses
how Lindberg inspired improvisations on the bass later correspond with musical
elements that flow from the composed parts for the ensemble, culminating with
the three drummers soloing together.
The second disc opens with the somber composition, Crossing On A Southern Road
(A Memorial For Marion Brown), dedicated to the late saxophonist who was a close
friend of Smith. This composition suggests multiple intersections that involve
soloists and small units of the large ensemble, as of the strings or brass
instruments, and later larger collective improvisations, all together weave the
dense crossings into a nuanced, multi-layered texture. The majestic musical
journey reaches its climax on Occupy The World For Life, Liberty And Justice,
inspired by the recent protests all over the world about the growing economic
disparity. This composition was originally commissioned and premiered by the
Oxford Improvisers Orchestra (OIO) in November 2011, and later performed by the
Silver Orchestra on the two-day celebration of Smith´s 70th birthday in
December 2011. The new expanded version of this soulful composition demands from
both Smith, as the conductor and one of its main soloists, as well as from the
ensemble to experience its construction from different written fragments during
its live performance. This composition features what Smith calls black
holes—spaces where the musicians collectively enter unchartered territory
and are asked to find their way forward around the edge of these holes. Takes
from allaboutjazz.com


Tracks:

CD 1

01. Queen Hatshepsut (17:13)
02. The Bell - 2 (15:57)
03. Mount Kilimanjaro (Love And Compassion For John Lindberg) (20:52)

CD 2

01. Crossing On A Southern Road (A Memorial For Marion Brown) (25:21)
02. Occupy The World For Life, Liberty, And Justice (33:30)

Personnel:

Accordion [Quarter-Tone Accordion] – Veli Kujala
Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone – Mikko Innanen
Cello – Iida-Vilhelmiina Laine
Conductor, Trumpet, Composed By – Wadada Leo Smith
Double Bass – John Lindberg, Ulf Krokfors
Drums – Mika Kallio, Stefan Pasborg
Drums, Marimba – Janne Tuomi
Electric Guitar – Kalle Kalima, Mikko Iivanainen
Flute, Flute [Alto Flute], Flute [Bass Flute], Piccolo Flute – Juhani
Aaltonen
French Horn – Kalle Hassinen
Harp – Iro Haarla
Piano – Seppo Kantonen
Tenor Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet – Fredrik
Ljungqvist*
Trombone – Jari Hongisto
Trumpet, Electronics – Verneri Pohjola
Tuba – Kenneth Ojutkangas
Viola – Barbora Hilpo
Violin – Niels Thorkild Levinsen, Terhi Pylkkänen

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