CREATE Festival West

Legendary composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith presents
the CREATE Festival West

December 15 & 16, 2017
at The Lab in San Francisco

The Festival, which debuted in New Haven in April 2017, goes west to showcase Smith’s visionary compositions

“A trumpeter and composer of penetrating insight.”– Nate Chinen, The New York Times

Schedule
--------

Friday, December 15

8:00 pm

Lamar Smith / Hardedge / Pheeroan akLaff:
New Piece / South Central L.A.

Lamar Smith: guitar
Hardedge: soundesign
Pheeroan akLaff: drums

Wadada Leo Smith’s Silence:
Silence

Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet
David Leikam: Moog synthesizer
Anthony Davis: piano

RedKoral Quartet:
Pacifica, String Quartet No. 12B

RedKoral Quartet:
Shalini Vijayan: violin
Mona Tian: violin
Andrew McIntosh: viola
Ashley Walters: cello
+
Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet
Hardedge: soundesign

BREAK

Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quintet:
America’s National Parks
(New Orleans The National Culture Park USA 1718;
Eileen Jackson Southern, 1920-2002 A Literary National Park;
Yellowstone The First National Park and the Spirit of America – The Mountains, Super-Volcano Caldera and Its Ecosystem 1872)

Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet
Anthony Davis: piano
Ashley Walters: cello
John Lindberg: bass
Pheeroan akLaff: drums
+
Jesse Gilbert – video artist


Saturday, December 16:

1:00 – 3:00 pm / Workshop for Musicians: Ankhrasmation Symbolic Language Scores

8:00pm

Wadada Leo Smith’s Earth:
Earth

Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet
Motoko Honda: piano
Soo Yeon Lyuh: haegeum
William Winant: percussion

ROVA:
Saxophone Quartet No. 1
Ma’d-Din, in memory of Sufi Master, Cerno Bokar Saalif Taal

Bruce Ackley: soprano & tenor saxophones
Larry Ochs: tenor & sopranino saxophones
Jon Raskin: baritone, alto & sopranino saxophones
Steve Adams: alto & sopranino saxophones


Wadada Leo Smith’s Pacifica:
Koral Reef

Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet
Henry Kaiser: guitar
John Lindberg: bass

BREAK

Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quintet:
America’s National Parks
(The Mississippi River Dark and Deep Dreams Flow the River – a National Memorial Park c. 5000 BC;
Sequoia Kings Canyon National Parks The Giant Forest, Great Canyon, Cliffs, Peaks, Waterfalls and Cave Systems 1890;
Yosemite The Glaciers, the Falls, the Wells and the Valley of Goodwill 1890)

Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet
Anthony Davis: piano
Ashley Walters: cello
John Lindberg: bass
Pheeroan akLaff: drums
+
Jesse Gilbert – video artist

-------

Iconic composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith presents the CREATE Festival West, a two-day celebration and exploration of his inventive and unclassifiable music that will feature classic works alongside world premiere performances. Taking place Friday, December 15 and Saturday, December 16, 2017 at The Lab, 2948 16th Street, San Francisco, CA, the festival will include performances by seven separate ensembles over two evenings. In addition, Smith will host a workshop, open only to musicians, on his Ankhrasmation Symbolic Language Scores.

A full schedule of events is below. Concerts on Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; workshop on Saturday from 1-3 pm. Tickets are $40 per concert; $70 for a two-day festival pass or $60 for a 2-day pass for The Lab members. Workshop is $50. For information, please go to http://www.thelab.org/.

The festival debuted in April 2017 in New Haven, CT where it will continue each year. “This idea had been in a dream state for many, many years,” Smith says. That long-cherished dream is being realized with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which awarded Smith the Doris Duke Artist Award in 2016.

CREATE offers a thrilling, rare opportunity to delve deeply into the full scope of Smith’s sui generis compositional voice and approach, which – in their category-defying range and breadth – can only be classified using Smith’s preferred term, “Creative Music.”