School of Rock
Random article All articles A–Z
2 languages

Wadada Leo Smith

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Wadada Leo Smith is an American trumpeter and composer, born in 1941 in Leland, Mississippi. He began on drums, mellophone and horn before choosing the trumpet, and played in R&B groups. In 1967 he became a member of the AACM in Chicago, the collective of innovative jazz musicians. There, with Leroy Jenkins and Anthony Braxton, he formed the trio Creative Construction Company. In 1971 he started his own label, Kabell, and founded the group New Dalta Ahkri with, among others, Henry Threadgill, Anthony Davis and Oliver Lake. In the mid-1980s he became a Rastafarian and adopted the name Wadada.

Music and breakthrough

Smith prefers to call his work creative music rather than jazz. He often sets down his compositions in a graphic notation of his own, Ankhrasmation, which he developed in 1970. Besides trumpet and flugelhorn he plays instruments from other cultures, such as the koto, the kalimba and the atenteben, a Ghanaian bamboo flute. On early records such as Creative Music 1 from 1971 and Silence from 1974 he explores space, silence and abstract sounds. In 1998 he made Yo, Miles! with guitarist Henry Kaiser, a tribute to the electric period of Miles Davis.

Influence

With his Golden Quartet, at first with Jack DeJohnette, Anthony Davis and Malachi Favors, he recorded several albums. His major work Ten Freedom Summers, about the American civil rights movement, was released in 2012 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2013. Smith has also taught, among other places at CalArts. He shows how the free jazz of the AACM grew into a world of notation and sound of its own.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to his trumpet playing on a recording by the Golden Quartet and notice the long notes, the silences and the role of the drums. Can you hear how a single note can carry tension?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: Artists