Watch: Wadada Leo Smith | Awakening Emmett Till

Here’s a powerful watch: Wadada Leo Smith was born in 1941 in Leland, Miss., just more than 50 miles away from Glendora, where the body of Emmett Till was found in the Little Tallahatchie River in 1955. More than 60 years later, Smith returned to Mississippi to canoe down the Tallahatchie, while playing his tribute to Till. NPR’s Jazz Night in America was there to document the poignant experience.