The listener is easily startled by Wadada Leo Smith. The man has an aura about him that emanates from some other place, some other time, when the rule of law was set in stone. A time not too long ago when collective aspiration held us all enthralled. And the man who carried that stone is none other than the trumpeter himself.
Smith’s presence also has a mythical essence that, in and of itself, is hardly breaking news. But it is that sense of now that news delivers, breaking or not, that empowers the kick-off “Dark Energy” — a piece of music so rightly titled and performed — coiling through the hardest memory of when music stood bare. A time when fellow daredevils, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and drummer Marcus Gilmore cut their own paths alongside him,…

You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please .

«