Sunday, October 30 at 8 PM – 11 PM
Woodland Pattern
720 East Locust Street
Milwaukee, WI 53212
Join us as Wadada Leo Smith & John Lindberg’s Celestial Weather tour comes to Milwaukee courtesy of Alternating Currents Live and New Music USA. Smith & Lindberg have been performing music together for thirty-eight years, having first worked together as members of Anthony Braxton’s Creative Music Orchestra in 1978.
They started performing as a duet in 1990, and have since given myriad worldwide performances in this context. Their music features original compositions by both artists, as well as co-composed works. The deep knowledge and understanding of each other’s artistic voices, gained from continually working together and developing a deep friendship over decades, has created an environment where their performances together offer an utterly unique musical experience. They share a dedication to creating and utilizing vital structures and systems that are compelling formats for spontaneous development and improvisational journeys.
Additionally, they have been integral parts of one another’s larger ensemble projects over the decades, perhaps most notably documented on such recordings as Lindberg’s The Catbird Sings, A Tree Frog Tonality, and The Great Lakes Suites; and the Pulitzer Prize nominated Ten Freedom Summers by Smith.
In 2015, Smith & Lindberg released Celestial Weather Suite, on TUM Records. This production of their duet music has met with substantial critical acclaim:
“Telepathy is an all too common catch-word for close musical interplay, but seems an entirely justified descriptor in this context.” – Derek Taylor, Dusted Magazine
“Celestial Weather is an open discourse between two musicians who have mastered their respective instruments to the point of literally giving them an emotive voice of their own.” – Karl Ackermann, allaboutjazz
“This is such a perfectly suited twosome, a partnership so attuned and steeped in mutuality that it offers a beautiful window on both of them individually, as well as being something all its own.”
– John Corbett, DownBeat Magazine
“The trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and the bassist john Lindberg have been associates in the jazz avant-garde for over 35 years … Celestial Weather is a work that underscores the acuity of their rapport.” – Nate Chinen, The New York Times
John Lindberg & Wadada Leo Smith: Celestial Weather Midwest Duets was supported by New Music USA, through a generous contribution from Joseph A. and Nancy Meli Walker.
MKE Jazz Vision 
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