Ambrose AkinMusire

GRAMMY NOMINATED

       Album released January 31, 2025      

For arguably the most technically gifted trumpeter of his generation, a lot of Ambrose Akinmusire’s breakthroughs actually come from letting go of standards and structures … Lately Akinmusire has been making some of the most intimate, spellbinding music of his career.”— New York Times

 “Akinmusire has created music with a deep, soulful thoughtfulness and purpose that stretches boundaries and pulls at the heartstrings.” – DownBeat

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TOURING CONFIGURATIONS

  • honey from a winter stone: Trumpet, Vocalist, Piano, Synthesizers, Drums, String quartet

  • Owl Song: Trumpet, Guitar, Drums

  • Quartet: Trumpet, Piano, Bass, Drums

PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

  • From composer & trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire:

     In many respects this entire work is inspired by and is an homage to the work of the composer Julius Eastman and his organic music concept. This album is about the fears and struggles I personally face, as well as those many Black men endure: colorism, erasure, and the question of who gets to speak for my community, and why. There’s also the constant negotiation of what happens when I don’t conform to certain expectations or when I choose to reject those imposed on me. These are the complexities I navigate daily.

    When I made this album, I was thinking about others who face these same struggles. I’m always considering who I represent—on all levels, in all the roles I play within my various communities. It’s about understanding the weight of those roles and the responsibility that comes with them.

    On the track “muffled screams”:

    It emerged from a near-death experience, which I survived because I wanted to be alive to protect my son. Kokayi improvised the lyrics based on personal stories I shared with him.

    Some of these ideas didn’t require direct conversation,” he adds. “The experience is so universally understood that words become unnecessary. Kokayi’s approach is pure improvisation, ensuring each performance is unique. I don’t simply view him as a rapper—he’s an instrument in his own right. The way he interacts with rhythm, rapping in harmony with the chords, brings a dynamic and profound quality to the music every time.

     

    Personnel (Subject to availability):

    Kokayi Vocalist

    Sam Harris pianist

    Chiquitamagic synthesizer

    Justin Brown drums

    Mivos Quartet

  • From composer & trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire:

    This is my reaction to being assaulted by information. This record is me wanting to create a safe space. Part of the challenge was: Can I create something that’s oriented around open space, the way some of the records I love the most do?

    I had a feeling of wanting to record with Bill from the first time we played—it was a duo performance, very little rehearsal. We just played through some of my songs, and it worked. One of Bill’s special gifts is the ability to shape a piece he’s just heard for the first time. He seems to know what the music wants before the first note.

    With Herlin, his commitment to beauty you can find in the groove. I never like to tell musicians too much about what I’m going for, because it should be about what these particular people bring … I said, ‘I know you’re the right person for this because of the way you approach the groove.’ And, of course, what he did is just beautiful. Also, I wanted to put people together who didn’t seem like they would go together ... and it turns out they haven’t played a lot. So, it was cross generational, cross subgenre, cross whatever.

    Press quotes about the album:

    “Akinmusire has been making some of the most intimate, spellbinding music of his career ... Even in its simplicity, Akinmusire’s trumpet can feel almost dangerously tender.”
    – New York Times

    “[A] beautiful trio album … As befits the title, Owl Song doesn’t raise its voice much, but what it quietly says is joyously vivid, even spine-tingling.”
    – Guardian, Jazz Album of the Month

    “This is subtly profound music, full of meditative, focused beauty.”
    – Uncut

    “A quiet rush of gorgeous sound where space, tone and beauty come together in one of the most impactful albums of 2023 ... This is one of the most interesting recordings to come along in a very long time by one of the most interesting artists of our time.”
    – DownBeat, 5 stars

  • Described by NPR Music as “one of the most acclaimed jazz artists of his generation, a trumpeter of deep expressive resources and a composer of kaleidoscopic vision,” Ambrose Akinmusire has made a home at the crossroads of different musical forms and languages, from post-bop and avant-garde jazz to contemporary chamber music and hip-hop to singer-songwriter aesthetics. His 2018 release Origami Harvest features rapper Kool A.D. with the Mivos String Quartet and was named a top album of the year by The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Los Angeles Times and more.

    The Oakland, California native and Blue Note recording artist has made consistently adventurous, enduring music with a committed band of dear friends: pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Justin Brown, whose unforgettable chemistry is captured on the 2017 double album A Rift in Decorum: Live at the Village Vanguard (“amazingly effective” – DownBeat). The quartet reaches new heights with their GRAMMY-nominated 2020 release on the tender spot of every calloused moment, featuring liner notes by the great Archie Shepp. On these and other releases, Akinmusire aspires to create richly textured emotional landscapes that tell the stories of the community, record the time and change the standard. While committed to the lineage of black invention and innovation, he is able to honor tradition without being stifled by it. Akinmusire has received numerous composer commissions: from theBerlin Jazz Festival for “Mae Mae,” a suite based on Mattie May Thomas’s 1939 field recordings; from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Liquid Music Commission (for Origami Harvest); from The Kennedy Center for “Untitled,” featuring MacArthur Fellow Cécile McLorin Salvant and others; from the Hyde Park Jazz Festival Commission for “Banyan,” a work for 12- piece ensemble that builds on Ambrose’s interest in the role of the griot and mentor in social and jazz history; and the Monterey Jazz Festival Commission for “The Forgotten Places” featuring Salvant, Theo Bleckmann and quartet plus clarinet, cello, harp and guitar. More recently, Akinmusire has branched out as a composer and has begun creating music for film and television projects including, most notably, the new Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal series, “Blindspotting.”

    Following his evocative 2007 debut Prelude... To Cora on the Fresh Sound label, Akinmusire joined Blue Note in 2011 with when the heart emerges glistening, produced by Jason Moran and featuring Raghavan and Brown with Gerald Clayton on piano and Walter Smith III on tenor sax. Akinmusire’s lyricism, distinctive harmonic language and rich sense of dynamic and timbral contrast set him apart. Highly virtuosic in execution, the music had a pointed social dimension as well: “My Name Is Oscar” initiated what became a theme linking all of Akinmusire’s studio albums, in which the names of murdered African Americans are recited and remembered with dignity. On the imagined savior is far easier to paint (2014), hailed as “a gorgeous, moving album” in JazzTimes, “Roll Call for Those Absent” took up the matter of injustice once again, as did “Free, White and 21” on Origami Harvest and the stark solo Fender Rhodes finale “Hooded Procession (read the names outloud)” on calloused moment.

    imagined savior found Akinmusire broadening his sonic and stylistic reach as well by incorporating guitarist Charles Altura, the Osso String Quartet and singers/cowriters Becca Stevens, Theo Bleckmann and Cold Specks, each with their own widely diverging vocal sound. (Akinmusire reciprocated, playing on Cold Specks’ 2014 release Neuroplasticity.) On calloused moment, vocalist Genevieve Artadi of Knower sings original lyrics on Akinmusire’s “Cynical sideliners,” in an affecting duet with the leader on Rhodes. Percussionist/vocalist Jesus Diaz also contributes Yoruba vocals on the opening “Tide of Hyacinth.”

    In  2024, Akinmusire  signed to Nonesuch records  and released the  Grammy nominated  “ Owl Song”  featuring  guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Herlin Riley. Owl Song is the first of three records Akinmusire will be releasing over the couple of years. Each will spotlight a distinct element of Akinmusire’s musical world and involve different instrumentation and production approaches. He confesses that he’s not one of those artists who breezes through his work; every record in his discography has challenged his thinking in some fundamental way. He focuses on the granular detail of the process, and only later, when he looks back, does he appreciate the entire journey of the project. Akinmusire will be releasing  the second record, honey from a winter stone  ( featuring  rapper Kokayi, the Mivos Quartet, Sam Harris, Justin Brown and Chiquita Magic)  in January 2025.

     Akinmusire has performed as a featured soloist with Archie Shepp’s Attica Blues Big Band as well as AACM multireeds innovator Roscoe Mitchell in an intimate quartet setting at San Francisco’s The Lab (a two-night event documented on the live album Come and See What There Is to See). Mr. Roscoe (consider the simultaneous),” from Famoudou Don Moye and Amina Claudine Myers), as well as calloused moment, finds Akinmusire honoring Mitchell and grappling on his own terms with lessons learned under Mitchell’s wing.

    In addition to his five Blue Note outings, Akinmusire has made signal contributions to groundbreaking albums across a wide stylistic and genre-defying spectrum, including Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl and Brad Mehldau’s Finding Gabriel. He has collaborated with acclaimed pianist Kris Davis in duo and trio settings at the Vision Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival and elsewhere. He appears on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 landmark To Pimp a Butterfly, on the closing track “Mortal Man.” In 2016 he was a featured soloist and composer with the WDR Big Band in Cologne, performing alongside pianist/arranger/conductor Orrin Evans. He played on Joni Mitchell’s 2014 release Love Has Many Faces, and in 2018 accompanied Chaka Khan, James Taylor and other luminaries honoring Mitchell in a gala concert documented on Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration. Other sideman highlights include recordings by Jack DeJohnette, Marcus Miller,  Steve Coleman,  and Terri Lyne Carrington.  Akinmusire  received his 2nd GRAMMY nomination --for   “Best Improvised Solo”-- on Carrington’s 2022 release, New Standards Vol 1

    In addition to winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2007 and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition the same year, Akinmusire has frequently topped the JazzTimes and Downbeat annual critics polls. He has received the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award (2014); Le Grand Prix de l’Académie du Jazz (2014); Germany’s ECHO Jazz Award (Instrumentalist of the Year/Brass); and The Netherlands’ Paul Acket Award. A sought-after educator as well, Akinmusire has taught at the Dave Brubeck Institute, Stanford Jazz Workshop, Musik-Akademie Basel, Banff Centre, Berklee College of Music (as Artist-in-Residence), Princeton University, McGill University, Indiana University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Southern California, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, New Zealand School of Music, Vriednden Antwerpen and more.

    A graduate of Manhattan School of Music, Akinmusire lived for several years in New York before returning to the West Coast to attend the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles while also pursuing a master’s degree at USC’s Thornton School of Music. During another five-year stint in New York he performed with the likes of Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks and Esperanza Spalding. He then returned to LA and joined the faculty at Thornton for two years before coming full circle: back to Berkeley, where he now resides with his family.

    In 2023, Akinmusire was named  the  artistic director of the Herbie Hancock Institute.

TOUR DATES