Roulette Members and Patron Circle Members may reserve a limited number of tickets using their member benefits by contacting Eric Umble at eric@roulette.org or (917) 267-2440. Member and Patron Circle reservations must be made in advance.
It is with great excitement that we announce composer, trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Wadada Leo Smith will receive the Vision Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award on June 21, 2022.
Mr. Smith’s performance at Vision will serve to punctuate a remarkable milestone, 80 years, in a career that represents several lifetimes’ worth of achievements. For this special occasion, Mr. Smith will premiere several new works, including “Albert Ayler” and “Prayer” for trumpet and drum duo, “Angela Davis Into The Morning Sunlight” for string quartet, “Flight 93 In Pennsylvania’s Sky: No Greater Love, a Remembrance of Their Beauty and Courage” performed by RedKoral and Purple Kikuyu, and “New York City’s Central Park in August,” performed by Purple Kikuyu. The night also features “Billie Holiday: Dark Lady of the Sonnet,” a collaboration with the poet Thulani Davis and the films “Butterfly Silver” and “Trumpet and Camera” by the late photographer and cinematographer Robert Fenz.
Trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist and composer Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most boldly original and influential artists of his time. Transcending the bounds of genre or idiom, he distinctly defines his music, tirelessly inventive in both sound and approach, as “Creative Music.” For the last five decades, Smith has been a member of the legendary AACM collective, pivotal in its wide-open perspectives on music and art in general. He has carried those all-embracing concepts into his own work, expanding upon them in myriad ways.
Set 1, 7:00pm Open Healing: Albert Ayler
Wadada Leo Smith – trumpet
Pheeroan akLaff – drums
Set 2, 7:20pm Film: Butterfly Silver by Robert Fenz excerpt
Set 3, 7:30pm RedKoral Quartet, String Quartet
Shalini Vijayan – violin
Mona Thian – violin
Andrew McIntosh – viola
Ashley Walters – cello
Set 4, 8:00pm Wadada Leo Smith’s Purple Kikuyu & RedKoral Quartet
Wadada Leo Smith – trumpet
Pheeroan akLaff – drums
Erika Dohi, Sylvie Courvoisier – pianos
Shalini Vijayan – violin
Mona Tian – violin
Andrew McIntosh – viola
Ashley Walters – cello
Set 5, 9:00pm Thulani Davis with Wadada Leo Smith & RedKoral Quartet
Thulani Davis – poet
Shalini Vijayan – violin
Mona Tian – violin
Andrew McIntosh – viola
Ashley Walters – cello
Set 6, 9:30pm Film: Trumpet and Camera by Robert Fenz excerpt
Set 8, 10:00pm Prayer
Wadada Leo Smith – trumpet
Pheeroan akLaff – drums
Founded in 1996, the Vision Festival is New York City’s longest continuously running jazz festival. Now in its 26th year, this festival of music, dance, poetry, and visual art is heralded as “one of New York’s most essential art events” (New York Times). Performances feature legendary and emerging stars representing the free jazz, experimental, and avant-garde communities and include Lifetime Achievement honorees like Amina Claudine Myers, Andrew Cyrille, Dave Burrell, Peter Brötzmann, and Milford Graves. This year, we honor Wadada Leo Smith and Oliver Lake.
Photo credit: Michael Wilderman, Jermaine Jackson & Keiko Shiga
