*** Wadada Leo Smith

CONDOR, AUTUMN WIND

(Wobbly Rail)

This is the first of Wadada Leo Smith's four solo albums to be recorded live, and it's a beautiful example of his meditative, pan-cultural music for unaccompanied trumpet. One of the jazz trumpet's most brilliant colorists, Smith is also one of the music's most provocative cross-cultural improvisers. The way he incorporates and synthesizes influences from around the world generates some startling juxtapositions. Vibrant swing-era blasts jostle split notes worthy of Don Cherry on the evocatively imagistic "East: Illumination: Eagle: Yellow." He balances driving swing against static long tones and opposes fast, darting lines against silence on "Hummingbirds Harvesting Nectar from the Birds-of-Paradise Plants." He sings Skip James's "Special Rider Blues" and accompanies himself on the African mbira. On "Sonicboltz Wave," he elicits off-center rhythms and hoarse textures from seal horns.

On three of the album's 10 tracks, he's joined by poet Harumi Makino Smith reciting in both English and Japanese. "Sunrise and Moonbows (for Marion Brown)" is especially effective, a short poem with trumpet obbligatos that captures the gentle spirit of the alto-saxophonist to whom it's dedicated. Although Wadada Leo draws on many sources, he never sounds derivative or eclectic. He absorbs everything he uses into a personal music that evokes spirituality and emotions that are universal.

-- Ed Hazell