Wadada Leo Smith
Procession of the Great Ancestry
On Procession of the Great Ancestry, Wadada Leo Smith threads trumpet history and civil rights struggle into a lean, glowing suite where dedications to Davis, Gillespie, Little and Eldridge sit alongside blues testifying and a closing hymn for Martin Luther King Jr.
Spirit Catcher
On Spirit Catcher, Wadada Leo Smith moves between luminous small‑group ritual and radical chamber experiment, setting airy trumpet-and-vibes lyricism against the austere blaze of a muted horn surrounded by three harps.
Clarity
To mark 50-years since a 22 year old Michael Gregory Jackson recorded his groundbreaking first release, "Clarity / Circle / Triangle / Square", recorded with the mind blowing group of his contemporaries Oliver Lake, David Murray and Leo Smith. This album is like no other I know, a new world, finding a perfect balance between multiple genres. Moved-By- Sound is very excited and honored to be involved in releasing the first reissue authorized by Michael Gregory Jackson since the original release i…
Condor, Autumn Wind
2026 stock Condor, Autumn Wind is a live album released in 1998 by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in collaboration with his wife, poet Harumi Makino Smith. Recorded in Durham, it showcases Smith's avant-garde improvisation style through mostly solo trumpet performances enriched by mbira, percussion, wood flute, siren, and vocals.
The album blends Smith's episodic trumpet solos—boldly shaped phrases that evolve piece by piece—with Harumi Makino Smith's evocative poetry recited in Engli…
The Bottle Tapes
Selections from the Empty Bottle Jazz and Improvised Music Series (1996-2005) is a six-CD anthology that captures the vibrant, unpredictable pulse of Chicago’s improvisational scene. Meticulously compiled from over 500 performances curated by John Corbett and Ken Vandermark, this box set chronicles a crucial era with recordings from nearly 100 international artists, immersing listeners in the fearless experimentation that defined the Empty Bottle’s celebrated Wednesday nights.
Kabell Years: 1971-1979
From 1971-1979 Wadada Leo Smith released four albums on his own, privately pressed label Kabell. Under the supervision of the composer, this material has now been collected, remastered and coupled with over two hours of unreleased bonus tracks, including the second set of the influential Reflectativity concert and the legendary Mapenzi solo concert from 1976. Complete with a twenty-eight page booklet featuring session photos and tributes from musical associates such as George Lewis, Alvin Single…
Red Sulphur Sky
The first solo recording in over thirty years by the brilliant composer/performer Wadada Leo Smith. Born in Leland, Mississippi, Leo was a founding member of the AACM in Chicago, and has been performing his music all over the world since the mid-1960s. His compositions for solo trumpet, highly acclaimed yet rarely documented, are some of his most personal and delicate creations. Red Sulphur Sky is the music of one of the true masters of creative music at the height of his powers.
America
Two creative music legends who share a remarkable spiritual connection in their first duo outing. Originally proposed to ECM in 1979 and rejected, this rare musical treasure is a project that has been brewing for thirty years. Featuring six new compositions by one of the most consistently brilliant composer/performers out of the legendary AACM, and telepathic interplay by two virtuoso instrumentalists who have been pushing the musical envelope since the 1960s, Red Trumpet is one of the highlight…
The Montclair Session
Loveland Music is proud to announce the release of The Montclair Session, a rare meeting of four titans of contemporary jazz: trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, guitarist Jakob Bro, pianist Marilyn Crispell, and drummer Andrew Cyrille. Recorded in Montclair, New Jersey, this album captures the essence of improvisation at its most searching, delicate, and alive.
Each of the four musicians brings a lifetime of artistry to the music. Wadada Leo Smith, a pioneer of creative music and recipient of numerou…
Murasaki
A powerful intergenerational trio emerges on Murasaki, featuring Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet, Marcus Gilmore on drums, and Jakob Bro on guitar. Recorded at Power Station (formerly Avatar Studios) in New York, this exploratory session unfolded spontaneously—no retakes, no discussions, just a shared musical language rooted in intuition and trust. “It felt as though this music already existed before we started playing,” Bro reflects. Murasaki captures the creative summit of three visionary artists,…
Reflectativity
Reflectativity, first released on Leo Smith's own label in the early 1970s is one of the most important extended compositions blending improvisation and composition, and one of Leo Smith's masterpieces. This exciting new version features the brilliant pianist/composer Anthony Davis (who performed on the original recording) and longtime friend and colleague Malachi Favors—the legendary monster bass player from the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Coupled with several new compositions, this CD brings toge…
America's National Parks
2016 release ** "With America’s National Parks, visionary composer and Wadada Leo Smith offers his latest epic collection, a suite inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country’s public landscapes. Writing for his newly expanded Golden Quintet, Smith crafts six extended works that explore, confront and question the preserved natural resources that are considered the most hallowed ground in the U.S. – and some that should be. His 28-page score for Am…
Tao-Njia
2025 stock A breathtakingly beautiful document of new compositions from a founding member of Chicago's AACM and one of the world's most important contemporary creative musician/composers. Featuring his ensemble Nda-Kulture and the California E.A.R. Unit, Tao-Njia blends jazz, blues, poetry and the cultural traditions of Africa, Asia, Europe, Indonesia and America into lyrical and profoundly moving music. Wadada Leo Smith-trumpter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser-has been active f…
Defiant Life
Anchored in the idea that, despite all obstacles, the human experience casts a net of possibilities, Defiant Life – Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith second duo recording for ECM – proves a profound meditation on the human condition and both the suffering and resilience it entails. An ethereal iridescence glistens between Leo Smith’s unmistakable trumpet wail and Vijay’s textural key strokes on piano and Fender Rhodes, conjuring multi-dimensional spaces of thoughtful musical conversation. “We work…
Procession Of The Great Ancestry
1989 release (RARE) ** "Recorded in 1983 in Nessa's Acme studio in Chicago, Procession of the Great Ancestry is among Wadada Leo Smith's most obscure, but ultimately most satisfying, recordings. Featuring Kahil El'Zabar, Louis Myers, Joe Fonda, John Powell, Mchaka Uba, and Bobby Naughton, this was the first album to showcase Smith's expansive vision, which included all forms of black music -- from the myriad languages of jazz to gutbucket blues, reggae, and various African folk musics as well as…
Eyes On The Horizon
Bassist-composer Joe Fonda’s Eyes on the Horizon is a gift—a gift from a former student to his master teacher, Wadada Leo Smith. It is the best possible gift a mentor can receive—it doesn’t imitate Wadada’s own work, it’s entirely in Joe’s voice. Featuring Wadada Leo Smith himself, pianist Satoko Fujii, and drummer Tiziano Tononi, it is a gift given by a mature artist out of respect to another whose example of artistic integrity, perseverance, and ongoing creativity continues to inspire him to …
Kulture Jazz
The ECM folks do much better by Wadada Leo Smith than ever before with this solo recording, a true masterwork of its kind and one of the purest, most enlightening demonstrations of the connected natures of folk, blues, jazz, and creative music. That Smith is the man to do this is certainly no surprise; he laid it all down in print years before this release in his self-published books and liner notes. But the way he does it, with so much grace and style (and with the excellent production by Steve…
Brooklyn Duos
2024 Stock A new collaboration between John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack) and american trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.
Lebroba
Andrew Cyrille’s title Lebroba is a contraction of Leland, Brooklyn and Baltimore, birthplaces of the protagonists of an album bringing together three of creative music’s independent thinkers. Each of them made his first ECM appearance long ago: drummer Andrew Cyrille on Marion Brown’s Afternoon of a Georgia Faun (1970), trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith on his own classic Divine Love (1978), and guitarist Bill Frisell on Eberhard Weber’s Fluid Rustle (1979); these are, of course, players of enduring …
Earth's Frequencies
Time to start the new year. Legendary trumpeter and jazz great, runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize, winner, Guggenheim Fellowship winner, NEA Jazz Masters recipient, Wadada Leo Smith and one of the greatest authorities on improvised music, educator, our friend, guitarist, and double bassist Joe Morris together! The album is a recording of a concert the two artists gave earlier this past year, on 12 February, during the famous ImprovisatioNOW concert series at Real Art Ways in Hartford, where audie…