Wadada Leo Smith is an American trumpeter and composer, born on 18 December 1941 in Leland, Mississippi. In 1967 he settled in Chicago, joined the AACM and formed a trio with Anthony Braxton and Leroy Jenkins, the core of the Creative Construction Company. In 1971 he started his own label, Kabell. Since the 1960s he has developed Ankhrasmation, a notation of symbols and images for improvisers. His Golden Quartet first gathered Anthony Davis, Malachi Favors and Jack DeJohnette. His records include Divine Love for ECM (1979), the four-disc civil rights cycle Ten Freedom Summers (2012), a Pulitzer finalist in 2013, and America's National Parks (2016) on Cuneiform.