WADADA LEO SMITH | AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS — Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens (2024) FLAC (tracks), lossless

"Wherever two or three are gathered..." Kudos to Red Hook Records and producer Sun Chung for this release as well as the Qasim Naqvi "Two Centuries" trio album featuring Wadada Leo Smith and drummer Andrew Cyrille from 2022. This is prayer to Smith's love of nature, of communal space, a patient, soft-spoken dialogue between two masters. Both 82, just a few months apart in age, Smith and Myers, are longtime contributors to Chicago's AACM as well as the evolution of African-American improvisation. Myers' piano drops its notes like slowly turned meditation beads as Smith illuminates them with sparks that never jar, fireworks seen from a distance sufficient to mute the shock. I hear a slowly incanted Blues throughout, the mantra of wisdom collected over long years and shared, concurred between two spirits of import. Wish the album was twice as long, but, yet again, it is as beautiful as anything I've heard. Mark B
Tracklist :
1    Conservatory Gardens    9:02
Composed By – Wadada Leo Smith
2    Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir     1:52
Composed By – Wadada Leo Smith
3    Central Park At Sunset    5:17
Composed By – Wadada Leo Smith
4    When Was    5:33
Composed By – Amina Claudine Myers
5    The Harlem Meer    3:07
Composed By – Wadada Leo Smith
6    Albert Ayler, A Meditation In Light    6:30
Composed By – Wadada Leo Smith
7    Imagine, A Mosaic For John Lennon    5:07
Composed By – Wadada Leo Smith
Credits :
Piano, Organ [Hammond B3] – Amina Claudine Myers
Trumpet – Wadada Leo Smith
Artwork [Cover Art] – Laura Arteaga Charlton