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Spirit Catcher (album)

album by Wadada Leo Smith

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 20, 2025
Entity authorityQ18209766 ↗
Source-derived summary

Spirit Catcher is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, recorded in 1979 and released on Nessa Records.

Background

Smith leads the New Dalta Akhri, a quintet with Dwight Andrews, Bobby Naughton, Wes Brown and Pheeroan akLaff, in two original compositions: "Images" and "Spirit Catcher". In addition, Smith prepared a very unusual piece for muted trumpet and three harps: "The Burning of Stones", a composition dedicated to Anthony Braxton with elements of two traditions involving harp-like instruments, the West African kora and the Japanese koto. The 2009 CD reissue adds an alternate version of this piece.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Spirit Catcher (album)” as album by Wadada Leo Smith. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Spirit, Catcher and album.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1979, 2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1979. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Spirit, Catcher and album providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Spirit Catcher (album)”, the useful work is to connect “album by Wadada Leo Smith” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 20, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q18209766. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979 and 2009.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Spirit Catcher (album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Spirit Catcher (album) primary sources, Spirit Catcher (album) archive and Spirit research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Spirit Catcher (album)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Spirit Catcher (album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.