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Heart's Reflections

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Heart's Reflections
Studio album by
ReleasedMay 16, 2011
StudioFirehouse 12 Recording Studio, New Haven, CT
Herb Alpert's School of Music, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
GenreJazz
Length1:54:00
LabelCuneiform Records Rune 330/331
ProducerMichael Gregory Jackson
Wadada Leo Smith chronology
The Blue Mountain's Sun Drummer
(2010)
Heart's Reflections
(2011)
Dark Lady of the Sonnets
(2011)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
All About Jazz[2]
The Telegraph[3]
The Jazz Mann[4]
Tom HullA−[5]

Heart's Reflections is a two-disc studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The album was released on May 16, 2011 via Cuneiform Records label.[6]

Reception

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Glen Hall of Exclaim! stated "Trumpeter Smith wears his love for Miles Davis on his sleeve. And the vibe of Heart's Reflections echoes Electric-era Miles, with wah-wah, electric trumpet, yowling guitars, rock-solid drumming and jangling electric piano. But where Miles' music exuded sexuality, most of Smith's two-CD set is ostensibly dedicated to Sufi saint Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili... Even with a heavy-on-electronics, 14-piece group, Smith's music is consistently focused and expressive.[7]

Phil Johnson of The Independent wrote "The astonishing 20-minute opening track might be called "Don Cherry's Electric Sonic Garden", but it's the wheedling tone and furious backbeat of the late Miles Davis that veteran free-jazz trumpeter Smith makes you think of most. Four electric guitarists among an ensemble of 14, with two laptop operatives squiggling away. You can argue that nothing on the double-CD quite equals it, or question the context of mystic spirituality, but Smith has made electric jazz sound dangerous again".[8]

Track listing

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Disc 1

All tracks are written by Wadada Leo Smith

No.TitleLength
1."Don Cherry's Electric Sonic Garden [For Don Cherry]"20:50
2."The Dhikr of Radiant Hearts, Part I"2:32
3."The Dhikr of Radiant Hearts, Part II"6:27
4."The Majestic Way"9:13
5."The Shaykh, as far as Humaythira"7:29
6."Spiritual Wayfarers"6:11
7."Certainty"5:24
8."Ritual Purity and Love, Part I"3:25
9."Ritual Purity and Love, Part II"2:32

Disc 2

All tracks are written by Wadada Leo Smith

No.TitleLength
1."Silsila"5:34
2."The Well: From Bitter to Fresh Sweet Water, Part I"6:13
3."The Well: From Bitter to Fresh Sweet Water, Part II"5:02
4."Toni Morrison: The Black Hole (Sagittarius A*), Conscience and Epic Memory (For Toni Morrison)"10:35
5."Leroy Jenkins's Air Steps (For Leroy Jenkins)"22:29

Personnel

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References

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  1. ^ Freeman, Phil. "Wadada Leo Smith / Wadada Leo Smith's Organic Heart's Reflections". Allmusic. Allmusic. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  2. ^ Corroto, Mark (May 22, 2011). "Wadada Leo Smith's Organic: Heart's Reflections". All About Jazz. allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  3. ^ Hewett, Ivan (4 August 2011). "Wadada Leo Smith's Organic: Heart's Reflections, CD review". The Telegraph. telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  4. ^ Owen, Tim (August 21, 2011). "Heart's Reflections Wadada Leo Smith". The Jazz Mann. thejazzmann.com. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  5. ^ "Tom Hull: Grade List: Wadada Leo Smith". Tom Hull. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  6. ^ "Wadada Leo Smith – Heart's Reflections". Discogs. discogs.com. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  7. ^ Hall, Glen (15 April 2011). "Wadada Leo Smith's Organic Heart's Reflections". Exclaim!. exclaim.ca. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  8. ^ Johnson, Phil (15 October 2011). "Album: Wadada Leo Smith's Organic, Heart's Reflection (Cuneiform)". Independent. independent.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-05-09. Retrieved 1 June 2018.