Trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist and composer Wadada Leo Smith’s Ten Freedom Summers, a Civil Rights tribute and multimedia project that pays tribute to heroes such as Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer for music. Completed in 2012, the epic work has yet to be performed in the southern U.S., but New Orleans will be the site of its inaugural performance on Saturday, October 14.
Put on by Loyola Presents, Ten Freedom Summers will be performed by Smith’s Golden Quartet, pianist Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg, and drummer Pheeroan akLaff. Also appearing are the RedKoral Quartet with violinists Shalini Vijayan and Mona Tian, violist Lorenz Gamma and cellist Ashley Walters, plus video artist Jesse Gilbert. It’s being described as incorporating archival news footage and evocative but abstract cinematic imagery, inspired in part by August Wilson’s Pulitzer prize-winning 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle, in which each play chronicles one of 10 decades of African-American life in the 20th Century. New Orleanians may recall Smith’s 2016 residency at New Quorum, an experience he says helped inspire his forthcoming performance at Loyola.
Of the engagement, Smith says “It will be a great pleasure and honor to perform my Ten Freedom Summers in New Orleans. This is an outstanding privilege, as New Orleans is the number one cultural city in the United States, having produced a firebrand of music that is created in the present moment. That genre is mistakenly called ‘improvisation’ instead of ‘creation.'”
Originally released in 2012 on the Cuneiform label, Ten Freedom Summers was the number-three jazz record of the year, earning comparison to Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. For more information about Smith, visit WadadaLeoSmith.com.
Loyola Presents Ten Freedom Summers will be held at 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 14 at the Louis J. Roussel Performance Hall at Loyola University of New Orleans, 6363 St. Charles Ave. Tickets are $15 for students and $20 for the general public. The event is presented by New Quorum. Tickets are available through newquorum.org or through the Loyola box office at (504) 865-2074, online at presents.loyno.edu or [email protected]. Doors open 30 minutes prior to performance.
