| Lake Biwa | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 2004 | |||
| Studio | Avatar, New York City | |||
| Genre | Avant-garde jazz | |||
| Length | 69:34 | |||
| Label | Tzadik TZ 8008 | |||
| Producer | Wadada Leo Smith | |||
| Wadada Leo Smith chronology | ||||
| ||||
Lake Biwa is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith released on John Zorn's Tzadik label in 2004. [1] [2] The album contains four pieces composed between 2000 and 2004.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [3] |
| Penguin Guide to Jazz | [4] |
| Tom Hull | B+ [5] |
The Allmusic review states: "Lake Biwa is a delight, and is full of invention. The players here perform the work's written and improvised sections with a determined sense of attack that also includes warmth, humor, and the desire for collective discovery". [3] Writing for All About Jazz, Kurt Gottschalk commented "Over four pieces ranging from 10 to 25 minutes, the ensemble truly is an orchestra. When called upon to step forward, the voices of Ribot and Zorn especially are unmistakable. But the rest of the time, the group breathes together like an orchestra rather than a session group group reading charts. The compositions themselves are both serious and exciting and violinist Jennifer Choi (a regular performer of Zorn's compositions) especially shines". [6]
All compositions by Wadada Leo Smith.
John Zorn is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". His avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, contemporary, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and world music. In 2020 Rolling Stone noted that "[alt]hough Zorn has operated almost entirely outside the mainstream, he's gradually asserted himself as one of the most influential musicians of our time".
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.
Susie Ibarra is a contemporary composer and percussionist who has worked and recorded with jazz, classical, world, and indigenous musicians. One of SPIN's "100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music," she is known for her work as a performer in avant-garde, jazz, world, and new music. As a composer, Ibarra incorporates diverse styles and the influences of Philippine Kulintang, jazz, classical, poetry, musical theater, opera, and electronic music. Ibarra remains active as a composer, performer, educator, and documentary filmmaker in the U.S., Philippines, and internationally. She is interested and involved in works that blend folkloric and indigenous tradition with avant-garde. In 2004, Ibarra began field recording indigenous Philippine music, and in 2009 she co-founded Song of the Bird King, an organization focusing on the preservation of Indigenous music and ecology.
Marcus Rojas is an American tubist from New York City.
Jamie Saft is an American keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist and composer. He was born in New York City and raised a Conservative Jew, and studied at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music.
Anthony Coleman is an avant-garde jazz pianist. During the 1980s and 1990s he worked with John Zorn on Cobra, Kristallnacht, The Big Gundown, Archery, and Spillane and helped push modern Jewish music into the 21st century.
Sylvie Courvoisier is a composer, pianist, improviser and bandleader. She was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has been a resident of New York City since 1998. She won Germany’s International Jazz Piano Prize in 2022 and was named Pianist of the Year for 2023 in the international critics poll of Spanish jazz publication El Intruso. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead has encapsulated the distinctive character of Courvoisier’s art this way: “Some pianists approach the instrument like it’s a cathedral. Sylvie Courvoisier treats it like a playground.”
The Gift is an album by John Zorn released in 2001 on the Tzadik label as the third volume of his Music Romance Series and described as an album "for lovers only".
Tzadik Records is a record label in New York City that specializes in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995. He is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases. Tzadik is a not-for-profit, cooperative record label.
Sonic Rivers is a collaborative studio album by trombonist George Lewis, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, and saxophonist John Zorn. It was released in June 2014 by Tzadik Records.
Creative Music - 1 is the first recording as a leader by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, which was released in 1972 on his own, privately pressed label Kabell. Subtitled "Six Solo Improvisations", the album featured Smith solo using trumpet, flugelhorn and various drums, gongs, bells, and home made percussion. It was reissued in 2004 as part of the four-CD box Kabell Years: 1971-1979, released by John Zorn's imprint Tzadik Records.
Dark Lady of the Sonnets is an album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, which was recorded in Finland and released in 2011 on the Finnish TUM label.
Reflectativity is the second album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and the debut with the ensemble New Dalta Ahkri, which was recorded live at The Educational Center for the Arts, New Haven, and released in 1975 on his own Kabell label.
Song of Humanity is an album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith with the ensemble New Dalta Akhri, which was recorded live at The Gallery, New Haven, and released in 1977 on his own Kabell label. The album was reissued in 2004 as part of the four-CD box Kabell Years: 1971-1979 on John Zorn's imprint Tzadik.
Tao-Njia is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith which was recorded in 1995 and released on the Tzadik Records' Composer Series.
Red Sulphur Sky is a solo album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith which was recorded in 2001 and released on Tzadik Records.
America is an album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and drummer Jack DeJohnette which was recorded in 2008 and released on Tzadik Records. It was their first duo recording, a collaboration originally proposed to ECM in 1979 and rejected.
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.
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.
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.
