Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith @ 2017 Ojai Music Festival

June 8, 2017 performance at the 2017 Ojai Music Festival
VIJAY IYER and WADADA LEO SMITH: A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke
Vijay Iyer, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, electronics | Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet

[@alienalajna]

Sublime. Not an easy music to enter into, but once you are there, it's very powerful. I first became aware of Wadada Leo Smith thanks to an article in the New York Review of Books, which included one of Smith's "paintings", or rather scores, this one for his Symphony No. 1: Fall, of 2008. I finally read Smith's explanation for the imagery employed in this, and for the other three pieces in the cycle, the other three seasons. I am an artist, for a time very much involved with the mandala, so for me there was an immediate connection to Smith's image. As a musician I am not even at the level of a duffer, but I can still appreciate his score, and the music. Deep.