Label: Astral Spirits, 2021
Personnel - Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet; Douglas R. Ewart: woodwinds; Mike Reed: drums.
Sun Beans of Shimmering Light is a fantastic set of improvised music by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, Jamaican-born woodwind player Douglas R. Ewart and drummer Mike Reed, all AACM musicians known for bringing a fresh perspective to any project.
This special encounter happened in 2015, but, criminally, only now is being released on the Astral Spirits label. As a true sensory catharsis, the music takes several forms, sometimes going from delightfully descriptive to energetically dynamic. The opening track, “Constellations and Conjunctional Spaces”, wields contemplative, audacious and prayerful moments in a constant exchange of energies. By plunging their instruments in tonal contrasts, Smith and Ewart create beautiful effects during a dialogue that stirs passion. While the former artist embraces infinite abstraction and multiphonic enchantment, the latter takes us to exotic places, exploring astringent cascading lines, whether on the bassoon or the sopranino. Reed’s pummeling percussion is often amorphous but well honed, cohering with whatever it’s going on at the fore.
The album’s title track displays crystal clear trumpet notes underpinned by chiming and rattling percussion at first, before evolving into a meditation with flute at the center. Near the end, this same flute probes elliptical trajectories, becoming occasionally percussive as it supports the boldness of Simth’s muted trumpet.
“Super Moon Rising” assimilates extra percussion in the aesthetics, imposing the majesty of toms, cymbals and snare drum rolls in order to grapple with the fierceness and the projection of the trumpet. Ewart then skitters around between Eastern-patterned arches before expressing his final thoughts.
Although enjoying the freedom of not having to deal with tempo, the trio suggests a three time feel on the introductory riff of the short “Dark Tango”, whose intuitive denouement is fabulous.
Each track churns with impressively cohesive ideas; all is improvised, nothing is disjointed. Hence, what Smith, Ewart and Reed do here resonates with musical assurance.
Grade A
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Constellations and Conjunctional Spaces ► 03 - Super Moon Rising ► 05 - Dark Tango