Vilnius Jazz 2025: Wadada Leo Smith - Sylvie Courvoisier (USA) at Vilnius Jazz Festival at Vilnius Old Theatre

Trumpeter-composer Wadada Leo Smith and pianist-composer Sylvie Courvoisier have collaborated for years, with Courvoisier performing and recording in multiple Smith-led groups and his clarion horn featuring on Courvoisier’s electric, atmospheric 2023 sextet album Chimaera. The pair have also teamed for some striking duet concerts, and they will continue their dual explorations with a tour of Europe over October 22-30, 2025. This will come fresh off the release of Angel Falls, their very first duo album together, to be released by Intakt on October 3rd. For the iconic, ever-prolific Smith — who turns 84 in 2025 — this is slated to be his final European tour, as he eschews the road after seven decades to conserve his visionary energies for writing and recording. For such feats as the epic album Ten Freedom Summers, Smith has been hailed by The New York Review of Books as one of the nation’s “most powerful storytellers, an heir to American chroniclers like Charles Ives and Ornette Coleman.” The Swiss-born, Brooklyn-based Courvoisier — whom The New York Times called “a pianist of equal parts audacity and poise” — has gone from strength to strength in recent years as she has reinterpreted Stravinsky, toured widely with her acclaimed jazz trio and as a solo pianist, and collaborated closely with such peers as guitar-star Mary Halvorson. Angel Falls and its attendant concerts promise to be a joint milestone for Courvoisier and Smith, their chemistry sparking a rare poetic fire. — Bradley Bambarger...

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Trumpeter-composer Wadada Leo Smith and pianist-composer Sylvie Courvoisier have collaborated for years, with Courvoisier performing and recording in multiple Smith-led groups and his clarion horn featuring on Courvoisier’s electric, atmospheric 2023 sextet album Chimaera. The pair have also teamed for some striking duet concerts, and they will continue their dual explorations with a tour of Europe over October 22-30, 2025. This will come fresh off the release of Angel Falls, their very first duo album together, to be released by Intakt on October 3rd. For the iconic, ever-prolific Smith — who turns 84 in 2025 — this is slated to be his final European tour, as he eschews the road after seven decades to conserve his visionary energies for writing and recording. For such feats as the epic album Ten Freedom Summers, Smith has been hailed by The New York Review of Books as one of the nation’s “most powerful storytellers, an heir to American chroniclers like Charles Ives and Ornette Coleman.” The Swiss-born, Brooklyn-based Courvoisier — whom The New York Times called “a pianist of equal parts audacity and poise” — has gone from strength to strength in recent years as she has reinterpreted Stravinsky, toured widely with her acclaimed jazz trio and as a solo pianist, and collaborated closely with such peers as guitar-star Mary Halvorson. Angel Falls and its attendant concerts promise to be a joint milestone for Courvoisier and Smith, their chemistry sparking a rare poetic fire. — Bradley Bambarger

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