Wadada Leo Smith’s
Ten Freedom Summers
Defining Moments in the History of the United States of America
Ten Freedom Summers is a large work inspired by the activity of the civil rights movement from The Niagara falls congress in 1905 and 1948, when President Harry S. Truman signed the Executive Order 9981 and up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s Memphis speech in 1968.
Wadada Leo Smith has composed a new work for the “Ten Freedom Summers” collection!
This new work is entitled “The March on Washington D.C.—August 28, 1963” and will be for quintet (trumpet, piano, bass, 2 drummers), string quartet, and harp. The ensembles performing the work include the Golden Quartet, the Pacific Coral Reef Ensemble, the Flux String Quartet and video artist Jesse Gilbert. This new work will be approximately 15 minutes long. Wadada premiered this new work at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY in 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this historic event.s historic event.