Saturday, November 9, 2019

John Malveaux: UCLA Medal Presented to Wadada Leo Smith Nov. 8, 2019

Wadada Leo Smith

John Malveaux of 
writes:

Nov. 8, 2019 attended presentation of the UCLA Medal to Wadada Leo Smith and concert of his works at Evelyn & Mo Ostin Music Center, UCLA. The UCLA Medal is the highest honor offered at UCLA. Past recipients include  Tom Bradley, Lawrence Olivier, Carol Burnett, John Wooden, Toshiro Mifune, James Earl Jones, Bill Clinton, Francis Ford Coppola, Shimon Peres, Benazir Bhutto, Janet Reno, Quincy Jones, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jimmy Carter, and Frank Gehry.

Wadada Leo Smith is credited with a compositional symbolic language, ANKHRASMATION, for creative musicians. The concert following award presentation included excerpts from Four Symphonies (Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet, Nina Eidsheim, voice, Vicki Ray, piano; String Quartet No. 11, movement No. 5, Angela Davis, and String Quartet No. 11, movement No. 5, UCLA Music Library (RedKoral Quartet).
 
See pic Wadada Leo Smith speaking after receiving UCLA Medal. Listen to YouTube posting of "Martin Luther King Jr" from Wadada Leo Smith album "Ten Freedom Summers"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFvCjG1wAxc

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