Wadada Leo Smith - Reflectativity [2000]

This new version of Wadada Leo Smith's classic Reflectativity from 1972 -- now a memorial for Duke Ellington -- shows his compositional strengths as fully developed, even at that time. Yet, in this piece, he reworks his own notation to open up his lyrical side over his improvisational dimension. His unusual notation -- which resembles Anthony Braxton's of the period and later -- was actually a system being worked out over the range of multi-tonalities and improvisational possibilities within the erected framework. Read More