Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith - Abbey Road Quartet

[mjazzg]

Just arrived this morning. Another fine release on Treader http://www.treader.org/.

Wadada Leo Smith never fails to move me with his diamond sharp playing. On this release he's accompanied by the marvellous Pat Thomas on piano and synth. Guitar, that often doesn't sound like a guitar, from John Coxon and you can never go wrong with Mark Sanders on drums.

Smith seems to have developed a very fruitful relationship with a group of UK players focussed around John Coxon and Ashley Wales of Spring Heel Jack and this is another valuable document. The sheer beauty of Smith's trumpet against the washes of sound from Thomas, Sanders and Coxon on track 2 is worth the entry price alone.

If you fancy some electro-acoustic improv then why not give it a try.

[JSngry]

I'm sure it is a fine release, Wadada is a true treasure, but please let me say that those are among the ugliest, perhaps even dumbest album covers I've ever seen.

This is one time when I'd prefer to pay more for a download.

[clifford_thornton]

Curious. Thanks for the reminder about this label.

[king ubu]

I remember those covers (from links in the funny rat thread, I think) but haven't heard any of these releases - they do look tempting though!

I don't think they're ugly or dumb... they are very recognizable and have fairly simple graphics, which is always a pleasure (too much of the world is being flooded by badly designed stuff... and magazines and CDs are among the worst, all too often...)

[JSngry]

Mmmm....TEMPTING!

[king ubu]

well, you don't have to eat them

[Larry Kart]

I'm sure it is a fine release, Wadada is a true treasure, but please let me say that those are among the ugliest, perhaps even dumbest album covers I've ever seen.

This is one time when I'd prefer to pay more for a download.

Ya gotta remember, in Jim's neck of the woods, road kill is a common item at the mini-mart.

[JSngry]

Yeah, but at least it's been dressed...

[Alexander Hawkins]

I'm looking forward to checking this one out...I chatted with Pat shortly after the session, and I think all the musicians involved were really excited by it. I was playing with Evan Parker on the night of the session...Wadada came to the gig, and I had the great pleasure of meeting him...a very inspirational guy.

p.s. I really enjoy whichever of the Treader releases I've heard (FWIW - I think they're really lovely packages 'in the flesh'). One which may have gone under the radar of some is Alex Ward's solo clarinet record 'Cremated Thoughts'...check it out - extraordinary!

[randyhersom]

Yeah, but at least it's been dressed...

By Mark Dresser!

[Joe]

Mmmm....TEMPTING!

Dude, what have you got against voles?

[RJ Spangler]

I'm sure it is a fine release, Wadada is a true treasure, but please let me say that those are among the ugliest, perhaps even dumbest album covers I've ever seen.

This is one time when I'd prefer to pay more for a download.

Very odd looking covers to say the least.

[Chuck Nessa]

Wadada called this afternoon. He said he's sending me some recent cds - maybe this is one of them.

[papsrus]

The covers aren't that bad. A certain Audubon Society quality to 'em ... maybe.

[Lazaro Vega]

Digging the Nessa re-issue of "Spirit Catcher" a lot, wow, the sound; as well as the new double CD "Spritual Dimensions" from Cuneiform with the Golden Quintet (Vijay Iyer; John Lindberg; and both Pheeroan Aklaff and Don Moye) plus a group called "Organic," which takes off the on the electric Miles side of the high Wadada.

[Chuck Nessa]

Wadada is in a very good place right now, both personally and musically. Everyone should check him out.

[ATR]

Digging the Nessa re-issue of "Spirit Catcher" a lot, wow, the sound; as well as the new double CD "Spritual Dimensions" from Cuneiform with the Golden Quintet (Vijay Iyer; John Lindberg; and both Pheeroan Aklaff and Don Moye) plus a group called "Organic," which takes off the on the electric Miles side of the high Wadada.

What did you think of the editing on Spiritual Dimensions? The pieces seem to begin and end in the middle. You can hear the audiences reacting to the music, yet there is no applause at the end of any tracks. I like some of the grooves, Pheeroan AkLaff and Don Moye are always welcome participants on any sesssion, and the electronic atmospheres are engaging. But I'm not satisfied with the edits, somehow. That, plus I think more could have been made with all that guitar ingenuity available on disc 2.

[CPC]

Digging the Nessa re-issue of "Spirit Catcher" a lot, wow, the sound; as well as the new double CD "Spritual Dimensions" from Cuneiform with the Golden Quintet (Vijay Iyer; John Lindberg; and both Pheeroan Aklaff and Don Moye) plus a group called "Organic," which takes off the on the electric Miles side of the high Wadada.

What did you think of the editing on Spiritual Dimensions? The pieces seem to begin and end in the middle. You can hear the audiences reacting to the music, yet there is no applause at the end of any tracks. I like some of the grooves, Pheeroan AkLaff and Don Moye are always welcome participants on any sesssion, and the electronic atmospheres are engaging. But I'm not satisfied with the edits, somehow. That, plus I think more could have been made with all that guitar ingenuity available on disc 2.

I was at Firehouse 12 for the live sessions that became cd2 of this set. When I first read that Nels Cline was going to appear here, I was disturbed because he wasn't performing with the band that night. Sure enough, his parts were overdubbed. A lot of the sort of ambient electronic stuff is NC overdubs, not what went down that night. Left out were 2 performances (1 from each set) of the great piece from The Procession of the Great Ancestry lp "Who Killed David Walker?". And there are indeed several edits.

There was lot of fine guitar interplay that night between Brandon Ross and Michael Gregory Jackson as well as Leo's grandson for parts of each set. I was really excited to know the shows were being recorded for Cuneiform, but disappointed when I heard that only 1 disc was going to come from the Firehouse 12 sets.

I think the cd is somewhat satisfying, but the performances that night were great, 3 hours total. We had a wonderful evening, and Leo seemed to really be enjoying himself with many friends and family in the audience. I still think that a nice 2 disc set could have been compiled from the show...but then I've always preferred concert tapes to studio/produced albums.

C