Trumpet legend and multi-instrumentalist Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier,  composers, recipients of many prestigious awards, share a long-standing partnership. Sylvie Courvoisier has been involved in many of Wadada Leo Smith’s projects and recordings, and his trumpet is featured on the pianist’s sextet album Chimaera (2023). The artists have also given spectacular concerts as a duo.

 

This year marks a new phase in the duo’s collaboration: on 3 October, Intakt released their first album Angel Falls. The duo presents the album’s atmospheric compositions in this European tour. Wadada Leo Smith, who will celebrate his 84th birthday in December, says it is slated to be his last tour in Europe.

 

Wadada Leo Smith is considered one of the most innovative composers and music theorists of the avant-garde jazz generation of the ‘60s. His contribution to music has brought him on a par with such American coryphées as Charles Ives and Ornette Coleman.

 

The artist’s real name is Ishmael – he changed his name to Wadada in the ‘80s when he became a Rastafarian (Rastafarianism is a religious and cultural movement that originated in Jamaica and has strong socio-political undertones). 

 

Smith has been a member of the legendary AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) for five decades.

 

As early as 1965, he began to develop his own system of abstract musical language, Ankhrasmation, which influenced his work as a performer, ensemble leader and educator. Smith’s scores using this method have been exhibited in many American museums, including the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Michigan, the KADIST Art Foundation in San Francisco, the Museum of Rhythm in Lodz, Poland, as well as the Clemente Gallery in NYC. In 2016, the Hammer Museum’s in Los Angeles exhibition featured these scores and presented Smith with the prestigious Mohn Award for Career Achievement.

 

His musical essays have been translated and published in Iceland, Greece, Italy and Japan. Smith has released over 100 albums as project leader or co-leader. The Jazz Journalists Association has honoured him seven times, including twice as Trumpeter of the Year (2016 and 2022), twice as Musician of the Year (2013 and 2017) and once as Composer of the Year (2015). The Down Beat Magazine lauded Smith Composer of the Year (2013), Jazz Artist of the Year, Trumpeter of the Year and Composer of the Best Album of the Year; named his duo with pianist Vijay Iyer the Best Duo (2017) and featured its photo on the cover twice.

 

Smith was also voted Artist of the Year by Jazz Times critics. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music (2013), received the Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2023), the Doris Duke Award, the Arts Award from the American Academy of Religion (2018), and the UCLA Medal from the University of California (2019). In 2022, Smith earned the Vision Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. His work is promoted by the annual CREATE Festival, founded in 2017. His artistic calibre is evidenced by numerous other accolades, grants, fellowships and residencies.

 

Smith composed his first composition at the age of 12, and from the age of 13 he was playing in school orchestras and giving concerts. His first instruments were the French horn, drums and mellophone. He received his musical training from his stepfather, guitarist and composer Alex “Little Bill” Wallace. Later he studied composition, trumpet, piano and music history at the Sherwood School of Music in Chicago, ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, where he researched the musical heritage of Africa, Japan, Indonesia, Europe and the Americas. He was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts and an honorary Doctor from the California Institute of the Arts.

 

He has collaborated with some of the greatest exponents of jazz and improvised music of our time, including Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Cecil Taylor, Carla Bley, Don Cherry, Tadao Sawai, Muhal Richard Abrams, Ed Blackwell, Kazuko Shiraishi, Han Bennink, Marion Brown, Charlie Haden, Malachi Favors Magoustous, Jack DeJohnette, Vijay Iyer, Ikue Mori, Bill Laswell, John Zorn and Frank Lowe.

 

For more than two decades, Smith has also been composing contemporary academic music. His outstanding compositions include the Pulitzer Prize-nominated oratorio Ten Freedom Summers, the Doris Duke Prize winner America’s National Parks, An Oratorio With Seven Songs, Tabligh for double ensemble, Odwira for twelve ensembles (52 instrumentalists), and Gondwana commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. 

 

Smith’s music has become a part of the repertoire of numerous contemporary music ensembles, including the Kronos Quartet, the AACM Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s New Music Group, the Contemporary Music Players of San Francisco, the New Music Ensemble of NYC and California E.A.R. Unit.

 

The maestro himself has formed ten ensembles. Between 2000 and 2016, he performed extensively with and wrote music for the Golden Quartet (Vijay Iyer, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson). Later it grew into the Golden Quintet. Smith’s oldest ensembles in operation are Silver Orchestra, Mbira, Seven and Organic Resonance.

 

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, his record label in Europe, Tum Records, has released several CD sets featuring solo works, music for duo, trio and string quartet. Back in 1972, the maestro himself set up his own record label, Kabell. Since 1996, he has had a productive collaboration with John Zorn’s Tzadik label. His recordings are being released by many other labels. 

 

Alongside composing, touring and recording, Smith has always found time to teach. He has taught at New Haven University, Woodstock’s Creative Music Studio, Bard College, and founded the African-American Improvisational Music Program at the California Institute of the Arts, where he taught until 2015. He has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard University since 2024, and has continued to give masterclasses, workshops, and residencies at other U.S. universities.

 

Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier has been a fixture on NYC’s avant-garde jazz scene for over two decades. She is not only a skilled improviser and composer, but also an interpreter of academic repertoire. Her music-making combines audacity and poise. 

 

Courvoisier studied classical music at the Conservatoire de Lausanne and jazz at the Conservatoire de Montreux. Together with her ensembles she has toured Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. 

 

The pianist’s trio, featuring bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen, has been hailed by Down Beat Magazine as one of the most outstanding piano trios of our time, and her duo with guitarist Mary Halvorson as New York’s most distinctive duo of improvisers.

 

She is also revered by avant-garde coryphée John Zorn as one of the most creative representatives of the contemporary music scene. Her duo with violinist Mark Feldman has presented Zorn’s music extensively in concerts and recorded it on two albums. The tandem has recorded albums with various co-led formations.

 

Courvoisier’s milestone album features Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Pritemps (The Rite of Spring) for piano four hands and Courvoisier’s original composition for two pianos, recorded with pianist Cory Smythe. This programme was premiered at the theatres of Lausanne and Paris in collaboration with the pianist’s long-time partner, Spanish dancer and choreographer Israel Galvan.

 

Influential jazz publications have named the new Courvoisier sextet album Chimaera, recorded with guitarist Christian Fennesz, trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Nate Wooley, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen, as one of the highlights of 2023.

 

Last year, the prolific artist introduced two more of her new ensembles in Europe – Poppy Seeds quartet (with vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, bassist Thomas Morgan, drummer Dan Weiss) and New Openings trio (with reeds ace Ned Rotenberg and drummer Julian Sartorius).

 

She has appeared in concert halls, jazz clubs and international festivals with a wide range of music stars, including Yusef Lateef, Tony Oxley, Tim Berne, Joey Baron, Joëlle Léandre, Joëlle Léandre, Vincent Courtois, Mark Dresser, Lotte Anker, Tomasz Stanko and Butch Morris.

 

Courvoisier has been commisioned to write music for the theatre, radio projects and concert halls as well as various foundations and festivals. Her work has received the Music Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2025), the German International Jazz Piano Prize (2022), the Swiss Music Prize (2018), the Jazz Prize of the SUISA Foundation (2017), the Grand Prix de la Foundation Vaudoise de la Culture (2010) and Switzerland’s Prix des Jeunes Créateurs (1996).

 

She combines intensive work and touring with teaching at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York.