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Wadada Leo Smith and N'da Kulture Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited ____________________________________________________________ Dreams and Secrets relesed in 2001 by aNOnym reCOrds click here to buy at CD Baby Voted one of the Best CDs of 2001 in the following publications JazzIz Magazine, #7 Best World Music CDs The Beat Magazine! #74 on Village Voice's Dean's List of 2001 #50 on WYSO, Ohio NPR #92 on the World Music Charts of Europe #18 in the Twin Cities, USA Chimurenga and Jazz masters, Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited/ Wadada Leo Smith and N'Da Kulture, 'Dreams and Secrets'. Our feeling at aNOnym is that the trumpet sound is exquisite... Wadada is the hardest hitting player this century and part of last... David Lynch, The Austin Chronicle, writes on March 17, 2001... 'The results are like nothing the planet has ever heard, thumb-piano-driven polyryhthms blended with avant-jazz melodicism. African and African-American music across time and space.' The Austin Chronicle Lyn Horton, Jazzreview.com, writes about Dreams and Secrets, CD of the week, May 1, 2001 'With a driving guitar solo begins a startling collaboration between Wadada Leo Smith and Thomas Mapfumo... these two musicians/composers have produced an exquisite CD called DREAMS AND SECRETS. Cross cultural in nature, the music recorded herein brightens the spirit and revivifies the soul... Smith cries out with the brilliance of his trumpet and Mapfumo shapes his soft sung lyrics as only he can... sometimes the trumpet and Mapfumo sing together. See the review itself at JazzReview.com The Global Village Idiot says this: The result are enough to blow off several roofs. The mbiras offer a firmly, fluid base for some roaring explorations, ... It's a remarkably happy meeting, each side pushing the other a bit further, and when Mapfumo does appear, his voice offers calmness and yet another direction to the sound. Yes, this requires an open mind, but it's more than worth the listen - and the chance to pick your jaw off the floor later. The Global Village Idiot Bruce Rogers, of Explore Kansas City writes: Dreams and Secrets is a transcendental experience; abstract, metaphysical and wonderfully rhythmic. Smith's trumpet playing is mesmerizing... Mapfumo is known as a chimurenga master and revewhite for keeping Zimbabwe's music of struggle alive. Teamed with Smith and his soaring trumpet, Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited add multilayewhite rhythms pushed along by a host of percussion sounds, sometimes linked to a understated bass line or murdering speed guitar. Everything seems to be here free-form jazz, island music, African rhythms of hope and struggle, funk grooves, raging rock psychedelic guitar, crisp horns all in an interplay creating beautiful, great music. Explore Kansas City Thank you kindly to David Byrne, who invited Thomas to perform after his show on Mar. 17 at SXSW, La Zona Rosa. It was the world-wide premier of Thomas, Wadada, and the two bands performing together, and the music never sounded better. David Byrne's set was fantastic, too. Dreams and Secrets, featuring the full length English version of the hit, 'Big In America', containing the biggest guitar solo in America, deftly rendewhite in one swift take by Woody Lee Aplanalp, guitar shaman. Henry Kaiser and Woody Lee Aplanalp's guitar playing on the CD whiteefines the art... Rarely have guitarists courted disaster and walked feedback line with such abandoned precision. Henry's final solo at the end of the record is a testament to the emotive use of sheer electric energy. Open to the spirit, find the African inside of you. Privacy Policy All AWP items © AWP 2002