Wadada Leo Smith's Great Lakes Quartet - The Chicago Symphonies (2021) 4CD

(4-CD box set) The Chicago Symphonies is a magnificent four-CD boxed set by Wadada Leo Smith's Great Lakes Quartet. Each disc includes a symphony with five movements composed by Wadada Leo Smith for this quartet. The first three symphonies, 'Gold Symphony,' 'Diamond Symphony' and 'Pearl Symphony,' are presented by Wadada Leo Smith with saxophonist/flutist Henry Threadill, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Jack DeJohnette whereas the fourth, 'Sapphire Symphony - The Presidents and Their Visions of America,' features Smith with saxophonist Jonathon Haffner, Lindberg and DeJohnette. The idea of a symphony composed for a quartet was first presented by Don Cherry on his classic recording Symphony For Improvisers in 1966 but Wadada Leo Smith has brought this idea to the present day and broadened it to include social and political into the creative space. The Chicago Symphonies celebrate the AACM and the historical development of creative music in Chicago starting with Louis Armstrong and through into the AACM, Sun Ra, Phil Cohran as well as, in 'Sapphire Symphony,' Abraham Lincoln and Baraka H. Obama.