Few artists get the kind of second act renaissance Wadada Leo Smith has enjoyed. It began during the mid-'90s when he issued scores of recordings for labels such as ECM, New World, Tzadik, and Cuneiform. Finland's TUM Records is celebrating the composer/trumpeter's 80th year with six new releases. The single-disc A Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday is a trio session simultaneously released with the box set, The Chicago Symphonies, by the trumpeter's Great Lakes Quartet. His collaborators here are longtime associates. Smith and drummer/percussionist Jack DeJohnette have worked together periodically since the '60s. The drummer played in his original Golden Quartet and is a member of the Great Lakes Quartet. Pianist/organist/electronicist Vijay Iyer appeared on Tabligh, Golden Quartet's third album (without DeJohnette) in 2008. They have never worked as a trio before. Smith writes in the booklet's notes that that the musical template for this group lie in his early partnership with Anthony Braxton and Leroy Jenkins on his composition "The Bell," from the saxophonist's 1969 debut album, Three Compositions of New Jazz. It illustrated the concept of the trumpeter's "rhythm units" in balancing sounds, textures, and silences without regard for swing. Smith wrote two pieces here, his collaborators one each, and the final work is a group improvisation.

1		Billie Holiday: A Love Sonnet
2		Deep Time No. 1`
3		The AD Opera: A Long Vision with Imagination, Creativity & Fire (For Anthon
4		Song for World Forgiveness
5		Rocket

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