America's National Parks

Last updated
America's National Parks
America's National Parks WLS.jpg
Studio album by
Wadada Leo Smith
ReleasedOctober 14, 2016
RecordedMay 5, 2016
StudioFirehouse 12, New Haven
Genre Jazz
Length1:36:33
Label Cuneiform
Wadada Leo Smith chronology
A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke
(2015)		America's National Parks
(2016)		 Najwa
(2017)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 83/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
All About Jazz Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [3]
The Buffalo News Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Exclaim! 7/10 [5]
Financial Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]
The Irish Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Jazz Forum Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [8]
Pitchfork 7.9/10 [9]
Tom Hull B+ [10]

America's National Parks is a two-disc studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. [11] [12]

Contents

Background

Smith was given a copy of the Ken Burns documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea and wanted to go beyond the concepts in it: "I wanted to expand the idea of national parks, and also not make them into cathedrals, sacred ground for some kind of religious endeavor, as Burns did". [13] He wanted to challenge the conventional notion of national parks as only areas of nature: "I say that New Orleans is a national culture park because in America the first community that developed culturally was New Orleans, [...] So why not think of that whole city as a common cultural beacon that happened spontaneously, with all the contradictions of human rights that were taking place there?" [14]

Release

America's National Parks was released by Cuneiform Records on October 14, 2016. [14]

Reception

At Metacritic, that assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 83, based on seven reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".

Euan Andrews of The Quietus stated "America's National Parks takes inspiration from past and present and transmutes them into possible futures. It is both act of redemption and sound of vindication through sheer force of will and undeniable existence, a reclamation of civic space as embodiment of cultural signification away from damaging and ineptly proclaimed political discourse or ethos. It is the sound of America as it should and could be and a defining moment for modern American jazz." [15]

A reviewer of DownBeat wrote "America’s National Parks continues in the conceptual and political vein of Ten Freedom Summers , reaffirming Smith’s dedication to commemorating significant moments and ideas in American history... the album takes a broad conceptual gaze at its subject matter. Movements in the suite celebrate individual national parks—including Yellowstone, Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon—as well as noteworthy musical thinkers like musicologist and educator Eileen Jackson Southern, whom Smith calls “a literary national park”." [16]

Track listing

Disc one

  1. "New Orleans: The National Culture Park USA 1718" – 20:59
  2. "Eileen Jackson Southern, 1920–2002: A Literary National Park" – 9:40
  3. "Yellowstone: The First National Park and the Spirit of America - The Mountains, Super-Volcano Caldera and Its Ecosystem 1872" – 12:34

Disc two

  1. "The Mississippi River: Dark and Deep Dreams Flow the River - a National Memorial Park c. 5000 BC" – 31:09
  2. "Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks: The Giant Forest, Great Canyon, Cliffs, Peaks, Waterfalls and Cave Systems 1890" – 6:48
  3. "Yosemite: The Glaciers, the Falls, the Wells and the Valley of Goodwill 1890" – 15:23

Personnel

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wadada Leo Smith</span> American trumpeter and composer

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the field of creative music. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Ten Freedom Summers, released on May 22, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pi Recordings</span>

Pi Recordings is a jazz record label founded by Seth Rosner in 2001. He was soon joined as partner by Yulun Wang. Pi specializes in avant-garde jazz. Its first two albums were by Henry Threadgill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wawona Tree</span> Historical giant sequoia tunnel tree in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California

The Wawona Tree, also known as the Wawona Tunnel Tree, was a famous giant sequoia that stood in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California, United States, until February 1969. It had a height of 227 feet (69 m) and was 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter at the base.

<i>Kulture Jazz</i> 1993 studio album by Wadada Leo Smith

Kulture Jazz is a solo album by American jazz trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith, recorded in October 1992 and released on ECM the following year—Smith's second album for the label, following Divine Love (1979).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Ray Hull</span> American landscape architect

Daniel Ray Hull (1890–1964), sometimes stated Daniel P. Hull, was an American landscape architect who was responsible for much of the early planning of the built environment the national parks of the United States during the 1920s. Hull planned town sites, designed landscapes, and designed individual buildings for the Park Service, in private practice, and later for the California State Parks. A number of his works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

<i>Ten Freedom Summers</i> 2012 live album and box set by Wadada Leo Smith

Ten Freedom Summers is a four-disc box set by American trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith. It was released on May 5, 2012, by Cuneiform Records. Smith wrote its compositions intermittently over the course of 34 years, beginning in 1977, before performing them live in November 2011 at the Colburn School's Zipper Hall in Los Angeles. He was accompanied by the nine-piece Southwest Chamber Music ensemble and his own jazz quartet, featuring drummers Pheeroan akLaff and Susie Ibarra, pianist Anthony Davis, and bassist John Lindberg.

<i>Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace</i> 2004 live album by Wadada Leo Smith & Anthony Braxton

Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace is the second album of a live duo performance by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and reedist Anthony Braxton, which was recorded in 2003 at New York's Tonic club and released on Pi Recordings. This album, along with Organic Resonance, is the first recording dedicated entirely to Wadada and Braxton's duo music.

<i>Tabligh</i> (album) 2008 live album by Wadada Leo Smith

Tabligh is an album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith which was recorded live at the CalArts Creative Music Festival in 2005 and released on Cuneiform. It was the third recording by his Golden Quartet with a new electro-acoustic lineup featuring pianist Vijay Iyer, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson.

<i>Spiritual Dimensions</i> 2009 live album by Wadada Leo Smith

Spiritual Dimensions is a double album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith released on Cuneiform. The first disc is the fourth release by his Golden Ensemble, which began as a quartet but here expands into a quintet with two drummers, and was recorded live at the 2008 Vision Festival in New York. The second disc is the first-ever release by Organic, an electric nine-piece band with four guitarists, and was recorded live in 2009 at the jazz club Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut.

<i>Light Upon Light</i> (album) 1999 studio album by Wadada Leo Smith

Light Upon Light is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith which was released in 1999 on the Tzadik Records' Composer Series. The album includes a composition for chamber ensemble and gamelan quartet, a solo piece for viola, a bass concerto written for Bert Turetzky and two electronic pieces.

<i>Kabell Years: 1971–1979</i> 2004 compilation album by Wadada Leo Smith

Kabell Years: 1971–1979 is a four-CD box set released on Tzadik Records compiling American jazz trumpeter/composer/inmproviser Wadada Leo Smith's earliest albums which were originally released on his own, privately pressed label Kabell along with additional previously unissued material from the same era. The set includes the previously released material from Creative Music - 1, Reflectativity, Song of Humanity and Solo Music: Ahkreanvention.

<i>A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke</i> 2016 studio album by Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith

A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke is an album by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Vijay Iyer which was released in March 2016 on ECM Records.

<i>Celestial Weather</i> 2015 studio album by Wadada Leo Smith

Celestial Weather is an album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and bassist John Lindberg, which was recorded in 2012 and released on the Finnish TUM label. Although they have played together as a duo over the years, this album is their first duo recording.

<i>Najwa</i> (album) 2017 studio album by Wadada Leo Smith

Najwa is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The album was released on October 20, 2017 via Finnish TUM Records label.

<i>Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk</i> 2017 studio album by Wadada Leo Smith

Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The album was recorded in Finland and released on October 20, 2017 via Finnish TUM Records label. The album contains five tracks written by Thelonious Monk, and three by Smith.

<i>Hearts Reflections</i> 2011 studio album by Wadada Leo Smith

Heart's Reflections is a two-disc studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The album was released on May 16, 2011 via Cuneiform Records label.

<i>Occupy the World</i> 2013 studio album by Wadada Leo Smith

Occupy the World is a two-disc studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith recorded with Finnish orchestra Tumo. The album was recorded in Helsinki and released on June 18, 2013 via Finnish TUM Records label.

<i>The Great Lakes Suites</i> 2014 studio album by Wadada Leo Smith

The Great Lakes Suites is a two-disc studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The album was released on September 16, 2014, via Finnish TUM Records label.

<i>Lebroba</i> 2018 studio album by Andrew Cyrille

Lebroba is an album by drummer Andrew Cyrille recorded in July 2017 and released on ECM November the following year. The trio features guitarist Bill Frisell and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. "Lebroba" is an abbreviation of Leland/Brooklyn/Baltimore, the trio's respective hometowns.

<i>Sacred Ceremonies</i> 2021 studio album by Wadada Leo Smith with Milford Graves and Bill Laswell

Sacred Ceremonies is a three-CD box set album by trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith on which he is joined by drummer Milford Graves and electric bassist Bill Laswell. Disc one was recorded on May 27, 2016, and features Smith and Graves in duo format. Disc two was recorded on May 26, 2016, and features Smith and Laswell. The entire trio is heard on disc three, which was recorded on December 11 and 12, 2015. All three discs were recorded at Orange Music Sound Studios in West Orange, New Jersey. The album was released by TUM Records in 2021.

References

  1. ↑ "AMERICA'S NATIONAL PARKS by Wadada Leo Smith". Metacritic . metacritic.com. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  2. ↑ Sullivan, Mark (October 10, 2016). "Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks". All About Jazz . allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  3. ↑ Jurek, Thom. "Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks". Allmusic .
  4. ↑ Simon, Jeff (October 8, 2016). "Wadada Leo Smith attempts to find mysticism in parks". The Buffalo News . Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  5. ↑ Perera, Nilan (November 22, 2016). "Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks". Exclaim! . exclaim.ca. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  6. ↑ Hobart, Mike (28 October 2016). "Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks — review". Financial Times . Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  7. ↑ Larkin, Cormac (13 October 2016). "Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks album review – stormy studies of nature, environment and ownership". The Irish Times . Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  8. ↑ Siegel, Barnaba. "America's National Parks - Wadada Leo Smith| Jazz Forum". Jazz Forum . Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  9. ↑ Walls, Seth Colter (October 17, 2016). "Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks". Pitchfork. pitchfork.com . Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  10. ↑ "Tom Hull: Grade List: Wadada Leo Smith". Tom Hull . Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  11. ↑ "WADADA LEO SMITH AMERICA`S NATIONAL PARKS (RUNE 430/431)". Jazz Messengers. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  12. ↑ "Wadada Leo Smith – America's National Parks". Discogs . Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  13. ↑ Panken, Ted (August 2017) "Wadada Leo Smith – Rising Up in Purity". Down Beat. p. 28.
  14. 1 2 Lutz, Phillip (November 2016) "Wadada Leo Smith – National Treasure". Down Beat. p. 32.
  15. ↑ Andrews, Euan (December 5, 2016). "Wadada Leo Smith: AMERICA'S NATIONAL PARKS". The Quietus . thequietus.com. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  16. ↑ "Wadada Leo Smith Celebrates National Parks with Double Album". DownBeat . downbeat.com. August 31, 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.