Sunday is jazz day. There was a period in my 20s when I was obsessed with searching out vinyl releases by artists connected to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a non-profit agency created in the 1960s by Chicago musicians focused in avant-garde jazz. One artist I discovered during this period is trumpeter Leo Smith, now known as Wadada Leo Smith. Smith is an avant-garde/creative music composer who has been a proponent of the creative music movement for over 50 years. In 2013, his 4-hour collection of compositions that he had worked on throughout his life (titled Ten Freedom Summers) was released and became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest release is a collaboration with pianist Vijay Iyer titled Defiant Life. The 6 tunes on the album move beyond jazz and into the meditational world of improvisatory composition. This is headphone music.

• Song of the Day (2025)
• Sunday Jazz