Wadada Leo Smith & Amina Claudine Myers

Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens

Red Hook

Two musicians inextricably linked to Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) pay homage to their favorite places in NYC’s Central Park. Rather remarkable, since it is decades since they first met, this is the first duo collaboration between trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith and newly dubbed NEA Jazz Master pianist and organist Amina Claudine Myers. Their shared history as key first-wave members of the AACM laid the groundwork for a friendship and creative partnership that spans over half a century. The AACM is a pioneering collective of musicians dedicated to the promotion and advancement of creative improvisation and experimental music. Founded in Chicago in the 1960s, the organization has served as a catalyst for innovation and collaboration within the jazz and avant-garde music communities. And, while some readers, recognizing the names, may quickly put this album in the avant-garde camp, that would be a mistake. This is highly accessible music to lovers of jazz and classical music alike.

The duo paints the kind of sonic imagery and conjure emotions that only truly masterful musicians can. Some may point to the flugelhorn-piano collaboration of Fred Hersch and Enrico Rava, The Song Is You on ECM as a reference point but that comparison ends with the similarity of the instruments. The tones, colors, and emotions conveyed differ vastly. These are tones of wistfulness, yearning, reverence, contemplation, and peace. The deep concentration of both players unspools at a purposely slow pace that amplifies the textures and depth of feeling. Its quiet intensity is spellbinding. The listener is enraptured and held in a mesmerized state for the full 36 minutes. Myers plays elegantly, and Smith’s trumpet more often soothes than blares. Smith composed six of the seven pieces.

Myers begins deliberately on “Conservatory Gardens,” as if caught in the splendor of the scenery and at a loss for words. Those expressions come in the form of Smith’s enveloping trumpet’s long, sustained, and reverberating lines which spurs a sensitive dialogue between the two before Myers takes it home in her minimalist, reflective way, finding joyful, tinkling tones in the last sequence. The slow ebb continues with “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir,” the park’s main body of water as Myers begins on B3 organ underneath Smith’s muted trumpet, segueing directly to “Central Park at Sunset” with Myers back on piano and Smith to unmuted delivery. The tone remains stately and majestic, with a touch of wistfulness as they close.

Myers is brilliant on her own solo piano piece “When Was,” exhibiting far more animation than on the previous pieces. “The Harlem Meer,” reflecting the body of water in the northeast corner of Central Park, a known place for reflection and even the observance of wildlife, returns us to the Smith pieces, gorgeously contemplative in tone. Smith pays tribute to spiritual jazz leader Albert Ayler on “Albert Ayler, a meditation in light,” departing from the Central Park theme in title only, as this is deeply connected sonically to the other pieces. Smith at times here reaches high into the upper registers and Myers’ piano glistens in a spiritual jazz way, as she strikes nimbly with shimmering grace. Elegiac tones come to the fore on “Imagine, a mosaic for John Lennon,” delivered as a fervent prayer for peace.

The collaboration comes across as two lifelong friends who haven’t seen each other for years, finding time to reminisce fondly and nostalgically in a private, most peaceful setting amidst their warm hugs.

 NOTE: Central Park is the latest release from the adventurous Red Hook Records, which was founded in 2020 by SunChung after a decade-long tenure at ECM. This album follows the critically acclaimed trio record Refract, by BlankFor.ms, Jason Moran, and Marcus Gilmore, (covered on these pages) and Two Centuries, the first Red Hook collaboration with Wadada Leo Smith, which featured Qasim Naqvi and Andrew Cyrille.

 

Jim Hynes

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