Wadada Leo Smith: Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform)
The trumpeter and composer’s four-disc work is a monument to Black Americans’ struggles for freedom. The names of the 19 movements summon up key episodes in the story, among them “Dred Scott,†“Thurgood Marshall and Brown vs. Board of Education†and “The Freedom Riders Ride.†With his free jazz quintet’s unfettered improvisation Smith blends skilled writing, including passages for a nine-piece ensemble of strings and winds. The tempers of the work range from tumult in “Dred Scott†to gauzy reflection in “Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964.†Titles and themes aside, the music, as music, is potent and satisfying.