Label: Kabell Records – K-3
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1977
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded August 4, 1976 at the Gallery, Hartford, Connecticut.
Photo/Design by – Diane L. Cherr
Cover by – Leo Smith
Engineer – Doug Clark, Peter Solak
Mastered By – Don Van Gordon
A1 - Song Of Humanity (Dedicated To Bobby Ferguson)
....................................... 5:13
A2 - Lexicon
............................................................................................................
7:40
A3 - Peacocks, Gazelles, Dogwood Trees & Six
Silver Coins (For Kathleen) ........ 8:30
B1 - Of Blues And Dreams
....................................................................................
11:03
B2 - Pneuma
...........................................................................................................
1:34
B3 - Tempio .............................................................................................................
6:59
Wadada Leo Smith – trumpet, flugelhorn, sealhorn,
atenteben, steel-o-phone, percussion
Oliver Lake – flute, soprano sax, alto sax,
marimba, percussion
Anthony Davis – piano, electric piano, [organ]
Wes Brown – bass, atenteben, odurogyabe
Paul Maddox
alias Pheeroan AkLaff – drums, percussion
Song of Humanity is an album by American jazz
trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith with the ensemble New Dalta Ahkri, which was
recorded at The Gallery, New Haven, and released in 1977 on his own Kabell
label.
After high school, Smith travelled for about a year
with various blues, rhythm ‘n´ blues and soul groups before entering the U.S.
Army. In addition to attending the U.S. Army School of Music, Smith played for
a total of about five years in six different army bands, touring not only in
the Southern United States but also in France and Italy. He also continued to
broaden his musical horizons and was leading his own Ornette Coleman-inspired
trio while still in the military. In 1967, Smith left the army and moved to
Chicago to work with saxophonist Anthony Braxton and other members of the
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the Chicago
creative music collective that combined the music´s African roots with an
improvisational approach. Soon after his arrival in Chicago, Smith, Braxton and
violinist Leroy Jenkins met for an impromptu practice session and, as a result,
founded the Creative Construction Company, a collaborative group that became
one of the key early ensembles of the AACM. Other collaborators of Smith´s in
the pioneering work of the AACM included saxophonists Joseph Jarman, Roscoe
Mitchell and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, trumpeter Lester Bowie, trombonist
George Lewis and pianist Muhal Richard Abrams.
Smith´s first recordings were also made in Chicago
during this period under the leadership of Braxton (Three Compositions Of New
Jazz in 1968 and Silence in 1969; these albums included Smith´s first recorded
compositions, "The Bell" and "Silence", respectively, which
already used the rhythm-units concept, a framework for improvisation that Smith
developed more fully in the 1970s), McIntyre (Humility In The Light Of The
Creator in 1969) and Abrams (Young At Heart, Wise In Time in 1969).
Like many other AACM members, Smith supported
himself by playing in the horn sections of various rhythm ‘n´ blues and soul
bands, including Little Milton Campbell´s group. In 1969, Smith turned down
Little Milton´s offer to become the straw-boss of his road band and moved to
Paris together with Anthony Braxton and Leroy Jenkins as well as a few other
key members of the AACM. During his year in Paris, Smith took part in two
important recordings by Braxton for the BYG Actuel label (Anthony Braxton in
1969 and This Time… in 1970) with a quartet that also included Jenkins and
drummer Steve McCall. Smith also recorded a duo album with saxophonist Marion
Brown in Paris (Creative Improvisation Ensemble/Duets in 1970). However,
perhaps the most legendary line-up of this period was an expanded version of
the Creative Construction Company (with Smith, Braxton, Jenkins, Muhal Richard
Abrams, bassist Richard Davis and McCall), which was recorded live in 1970 in
connection with the AACM´s first concert in New York City (Creative
Construction Company and Creative Construction Company 2). Smith worked with
Braxton throughout the 1970s, including in Braxton´s quartet with Smith,
bassist Dave Holland and drummer Phillip Wilson and other small groups as well
as on Braxton´s classic big band recordings, Creative Orchestra Music 1976 and
Creative Orchestra (Koln) 1978. Since that time, Braxton and Smith have
continued to play together from time to time.
After the year in Paris, Smith led his own group,
Intergral, with saxophonist Henry Threadgill, trombonist Lester Lashley and
drummer Thurman Baker, for about six months before settling in New Haven,
Connecticut, for a period of ten years. In New Haven, Smith concentrated on his
own music as well as studying and teaching rather than touring and recording
all over the world like many of his compatriots. In addition to leading his own
groups and teaching at the University of New Haven, he studied ethnomusicology
at the Wesleyan University, focusing on West African, Japanese, Indonesian and
Native American music cultures.
Smith´s first recording as a leader was a solo
album (Creative Music-1 in 1971), which was also the first album released on
Kabell, the independent record label Smith had founded. After this first solo
recording, Smith has continued to perform solo concerts and has recorded three
additional solo albums (Solo Music/Ahkreanvention in 1979, Kulture Jazz in 1992
and Red Sulphur Sky in 2001).
Smith´s principal ensemble in New Haven, New Dalta
Ahkri, was comprised of his students and other young musicians based in the
area. At various times, these included saxophonists Dwight Andrews, Oliver Lake
and Henry Threadgill, pianist Anthony Davis, vibraphonist Bobby Naughton,
guitarist Michael Gregory Jackson, bassist Wes Brown and drummer Pheeroan
akLaff, among others. Following Smith´s first solo recording, New Dalta Ahkri
was responsible for the next two albums for Kabell (Reflectativity, with Smith,
Davis and Brown, in 1974 and Song Of Humanity, with Smith, Lake, Davis, Brown
and akLaff, in 1976) as well as a track on Wildflowers, the five-album
collection that documented New York´s burgeoning loft jazz movement of the
mid-1970s (Wildflowers 2, with Smith, Lake, Davis, Brown, akLaff and drummer
Stanley Crouch, in 1976). New Dalta Akhri was also featured on Smith´s
subsequent small group recordings (The Mass On The World, with Smith, Andrews
and Naughton, in 1978; Divine Love, with Smith, Andrews and Naughton as well as
trumpeters Lester Bowie and Kenny Wheeler and bassist Charlie Haden, in 1978;
Spirit Catcher, with Smith, Andrews, Naughton, Brown and akLaff, in 1979; and
Go In Numbers, with Smith, Andrews, Naughton and Brown, in 1980). In addition,
members of New Dalta Ahkri were part of the two large orchestras responsible
for Smith´s first big band recordings, Leo Smith Creative Orchestra (Budding Of
A Rose in 1979) and Leo Smith & The Creative Improviser Orchestra (The Sky
Cries The Blues in 1981).
Leo Smith said:
"I first met Pheeroan akLaff (real name is
Paul Maddox) in New Haven, Connecticut around 1975-76. It was during this time
that we began to talk about making music together in my New Dalta Ahkri
ensemble.
My impression of Pheeroan was that he was a truly
beautiful spirit, a creative artist who had a connection with spirituality in
his character. A young man not frightened by musical ideas of a different
nature nor of musical languages unlike his own music at the time. Pheeroan
became the first drummer in New Dalta Ahkri and was a part of its musical
research and development; therefore, he was the first drummer/percussionist to
articulate my rhythm-units concept in performances and on recordings.
As a master
drummer/percussionist, Pheeroan has a musical sophistication that gives him the
ability to articulate any musical idea into its essence, while maintaining
every aspect of its emotional energy transporting the performer and the
listener. He is a great artist."
50 Years of AACM - Association for the Advancement
of Creative Musicians
If you find it, buy this album!
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