Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens is a work that chronicles Wadada Leo Smith’s many visits to the different areas selected in the compositions. The music is a reflective, meditative, and sonic odyssey concerning nature, performed by two AACM legends.

Wadada Leo Smith trumpet
Amina Claudine Myers piano

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.

Wadada Leo Smith (Leland, Mississippi, 1941) Trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser Smith has been active in creative contemporary music for over forty years. Born in Leland, Mississippi, Smith’s early musical life began in the high school concert and marching bands. At the age of thirteen, he became involved with the Delta Blues and Improvisation music traditions. He received his formal musical education with his stepfather Alex Wallace, the U.S. Military band program, Sherwood School of Music, and Wesleyan University. Mr. Smith has studied a variety of musical cultures: African, Japanese, Indonesian, European and American. He has taught at the University of New Haven, the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY, and Bard College. He is currently a faculty member at The Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts. He is the director of the African-American Improvisational Music program, and is a member of ASCAP, Chamber Music America, and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Mr. Smith’s awards and commissions include: MAP Fund Award for “Ten Freedom Summers”, Chamber Music America New Works Grant, Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Other Minds, Djerassi Foundation Fellowship, FONT (Festival of New Trumpet) Award of Recognition, Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Award, Islamic World Arts Initiative of Arts International, Fellow of the Civitela Foundation, Fellow at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Meet the Composer/Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, Asian Cultural Council Grantee to Japan, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Music, Numerous Meet the Composer Grants, and National Endowment for the Arts Music Grants. A consistently adventurous trumpeter who has been able to focus on playing his own distinct music throughout his career, Smith joined Chicago’s AACM in 1967 and soon helped to found the Creative Construction Company, an innovative trio with violinist Leroy Jenkins and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton. Smith formed the New Dalta Ahkri in New Haven, CT, an influential if under-documented band that at times included Henry Threadgill, Anthony Davis, and Oliver Lake. Mr. Smith founded the Kabell label in 1971, which has released many albums since that time. Smith has also recorded for Freedom, Moers, ECM, Nessa, FMP, Black Saint, Sackville, Pi, Tzadik, and Cuneiform, in settings ranging from unaccompanied solos to orchestra.

Born in Blackwell, Arkansas and raised on gospel and blues of the South, Amina Claudine Myers quickly earned her musical chops and respect under the tutelage of Muhal Richard Abrams in the 1960s, and shortly became a member of the The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). In the late seventies, Myers toured in The Lester Bowie Quintet and The New York Organ Ensemble across Europe, Asia, and the United States, and performed alongside Archie Shepp in an historic performance in Cape Town, South Africa at The North Sea Jazz Festival. Additionally, she has collaborated and performed with the likes of Bill Laswell, Charlie Hade, and James Blood Ulmer, among others. Myers has received several grants from the National Endowments for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and New York Foundation for the Arts.