Wadada Leo Smith News

It's Jan. 26, and upstairs at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Gustavo Dudamel is about to conduct a rather traditional program of Mahler's Sixth Symphony.

Solo 1979 , the second solo Anthony Braxton disc to be issued on Leo's Golden Years series, consists of a single concert given on January 17th.

I can't help but wonder how potential concert consumers choose whether or not to attend an artistic event.

Free jazz denotes an idiom and has little to do with freedom. John Litweiler's The Freedom Principle chronicles how Leo Smith, born in Leland, Mississippi, a hub for the blues, entered into the service , discovered Don Cherry, moved to Chicago, joined the AACM, and developed into a standard for lyrical contrasts and space.

Trumpeter, composer and bandleader Wadada Leo Smith, who celebrated his 70th birthday just last month, is as productive as he's ever been, and I'm getting nearly exhausted just keeping up covering all his new releases .