Go In Numbers

The third album by Wadada Leo Smith’s group the New Dalta Akhri was recorded live at the Kitchen in NYC in 1980 and released two years later on the Italian label Black Saint. On this occasion, NDA consisted of Smith on trumpet, Dwight Andrews on tenor and soprano saxes and flute, Wes Brown on bass, and Bobby Naughton on vibraphone. Smith’s sharp-edged trumpet, leaping up and down with little thought for conventional phrasing or traditional harmony, demands careful attention from his bandmates, and Naughton provides a complementary voice, murmuring assent and encouragement as the leader preaches. Brown and Naughton provide a trilling, rumbling, ornamental backdrop; this isn’t jazz, but it isn’t chamber music either — it’s something like living inside a greenhouse full of exotic birds while thinking thoughts of revolution.