Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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Wadada you know: Avant-garde genius still blows listeners away
CHRIS SEARLE explores the tender beauty of trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s music in four distinct albums from across a decade
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
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NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
Wadada Leo Smith
Kulture Jazz (ECM 1507), Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace (Pi P110), The Year of the Elephant (Pi P104) and Wisdom in Time (Intakt CD 128).
WHEN I first heard the glory of Wadada Leo Smith’s trumpet ringing through Conway Hall in 2010, blowing at the Freedom of the City festival of improvised music with two powerful drummers, Steve Noble and Louis Moholo-Moholo, it was as if breath itself had become a messenger of hope and beauty.
Smith was born in Leland, Mississippi, in 1941 and took up drums, French horn and mellophone as a boy before settling on trumpet. He played in R’n’B groups before becoming an early member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), then formed the Creative Construction Company while sojourning in Paris with revolutionary musical confreres, violinist Leroy Jenkins and saxophonist Anthony Braxton.
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