America's National Parks (album)

America's National Parks is a two-disc studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.

[11][12] Smith was given a copy of the Ken Burns documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea and wanted to go beyond the concepts in it: "I wanted to expand the idea of national parks, and also not make them into cathedrals, sacred ground for some kind of religious endeavor, as Burns did".

Euan Andrews of The Quietus stated "America's National Parks takes inspiration from past and present and transmutes them into possible futures.

It is both act of redemption and sound of vindication through sheer force of will and undeniable existence, a reclamation of civic space as embodiment of cultural signification away from damaging and ineptly proclaimed political discourse or ethos.

"[15] A reviewer of DownBeat wrote "America’s National Parks continues in the conceptual and political vein of Ten Freedom Summers, reaffirming Smith’s dedication to commemorating significant moments and ideas in American history... the album takes a broad conceptual gaze at its subject matter.