Five Voices Exploring Freedom Together
Advanced and quite free — five players sharing equally in fresh explorations of group originals.
Rastafari happened as a genuine collaboration, which is unusual enough to matter. Wadada Leo Smith brought his trumpet and a set of original compositions, but producer Bill Smith — co-founder of the Sackville label — shaped this into something bigger than a sideman session. Smith insisted it be a cooperative effort, five musicians in the room with equal voice in how these pieces would unfold. That philosophy changes what you hear. There's no hierarchy, no one waiting for permission to speak.
The four group originals are advanced and genuinely free, moving through space that feels open and exploratory rather than chaotic. These aren't tunes with heads and solos; they're frameworks for collective invention. AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow heard musicians thinking together in real time, each one shaping the direction, nobody defaulting to background duty. That kind of music only works if everyone in the room understands they're building something, not filling slots.
Rastafari sits apart from Smith's other work of this era — it's a snapshot of how a specific group of adventurous players could meet without ego or hierarchy and make something that holds together through trust alone. Not every listen reveals everything, but the mutuality is immediate. This was reissued on CD in 2003, which kept it in circulation, though it remains known mainly to people actively seeking out Smith's catalog rather than a gateway record.
