Recorded on May 21, 1979
Spirit Catcher is the perfect title for this beautiful record. Smith was another enormously influential voice to emerge during the 1970s.
His music marries the freedom of the avant-garde with strong compositional elements, often creating gently distinctive and diaphanous textures, expanding the jazz vocabulary beyond traditional limits.
More Wadada Leo Smith
Divine Love (ECM, 1979) is comparable to Spirit Catcher. It's also easy to recommend, although I prefer the Nessa release.
Smith's earliest albums as a leader are collected on Kabell Years 1971-1979 (Tzadik, 2004). The 4-disc set consists of LPs originally released on Smith's own Kabell imprint:
- Creative Music - 1 (1972)
- Reflectativity (1975)
- Song of Humanity (1977)
- Solo Music: Ahkreanvention (1979)
Wadada Leo Smith has recently received belated recognition, but I still think that Spirit Catcher and Divine Love are his best work. Surrounded by complementary players (notably Andrews, Naughton, and the harpists) this is special music that can authentically be considered "spiritual". It reminds me a bit of James Newton's Gramavision records of the 1980s (Luella and Water Mystery). Without a piano present, there's a lot more freedom and spooky timbres involved - vibes, bass clarinets, mournful brass. Lovely stuff.
ReplyDeleteExcellent choice!!