Legendary American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith (b.1941) has recorded with Danish guitarist Jakob Bro (b. 1978, the head of Loveland Music label), when they played with their common ally, master drummer Andrew Cyrille (The Montclair Session, with pianist Marilyn Crispell, Loveland Music, 2025). The next generation drummer genius, Marcus Gilmore (b. 1986) has played with both Smith and Bro in New York, after he joined Bro’s band at the Village Vanguard last year.
Murasaki is the first album that documents these gifted, free-thinking, and genre-defying musicians as a trio, accompanied by Bro’s soul mate, double bass player Thomas Morgan (of Bro Trio). The recording session was initiated by Bro, and took place at Power Station in New York in January 2025, where the trio has established an immediate affinity. Bro tells that the exploratory session unfolded spontaneously, with no retakes, no discussions, just a shared musical language rooted in intuition and trust. «It felt as though this music already existed before we started playing». This trio is expected to tour Europe in November, in Smith’s last tour in Europe.
The album is opened and closed by Gilmore’s free-associative solo drums, «Winnowing One & Two». The free improvised pieces credited to the trio – «Sonic Mountains», «Yoyogi Park Dream», and «Heart Language» highlight its free, poetic language, swinging between the experimental to the openly emotional, and stress Smith’s role as a force of nature, defining the atmosphere of every piece with a few spiritual-cosmic statements. Bro thinks of Smith as an artist who «has found a loophole to the other side, to a place of mystery, creativity, and beauty». Bro’s effects-laden electric guitar and his sparse acoustic guitar playing intensify the mystery while Gilmore opens the trio’s dynamics with his free drumming. Smith and Gilmore’s «Imagine the Fire and Flames that Lights Up the Light World» goes back to free jazz, groove-based territory, and to Smith’s iconic duos with drummers Ed Blackwell and Jack DeJohnette.
Hopefully, the coming tour of this trio will lead to more recordings if this boundary-pushing trio.
Eyal Hareuveni
Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet), Marcus Gilmore (drums), Jakob Bro (guitar), Thomas Morgan (double bass)
