Home » Jazz Articles » Ambrose Akinmusire
Jazz Articles about Ambrose Akinmusire
Billy Childs: The Winds of Change
by Neil Duggan
Billy Childs, one of the most critically acclaimed pianists in modern jazz, is in high demand as a modern classical composer. He has played and composed music ranging from orchestral to chamber works to contemporary small ensemble jazz. This has brought him five Grammy awards to date. Starting as a pianist in his native Los Angeles, he then spent six years with Freddie Hubbard's band before becoming a leader in his own right. He has performed with a ...
Continue ReadingDavid Binney: Barefooted Town
by Josef Woodard
Continuing Saga of the Strong Seeker I remember distinctly during the 2007 Montreal Jazz Festival, sifting through and measuring up the usual blur of stimuli, seeking out the prizes among prizes in the program. In one corner, there was Wayne Shorter, in the finest of his performance I'd ever heard—playing up his suits as composer and soloist by meshing his free-wheeling quartet and the score-heeding Imani Winds. And then, in another corner, as part of the late night haunt of ...
Continue ReadingTigran Hamasyan: Stand Art
by Jerome Wilson
Many jazz pianists start out by playing tunes from the standard pop and jazz repertoires before tackling their own compositions. Tigran Hamasyan has gone in the opposite direction. He has been recording original works and traditional Armenian songs since 2005. Now, on his eleventh album, he finally gets around to playing American standards. Hamasyan leads a trio here with Matt Brewer on bass and Justin Brown on drums, occasionally helped out by tenor saxophonists Mark Turner and Joshua ...
Continue ReadingTrefoil: Ambrose Akinmusire, Kris Davis, and Gerald Cleaver at The Bop Stop
by C. Andrew Hovan
Trefoil: Ambrose Akinmusire, Kris Davis, and Gerald Cleaver Bop Stop Cleveland, Ohio March 20, 2022 With a distinguished resume that includes his 2007 wins in both the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire still finds himself traveling under the radar of the general jazz listening public. Grammy nominations and appearances with a wide range of artists from Joni Mitchell to Kendrick Lamar have served ...
Continue ReadingJen Shyu and Jade Tongue: Zero Grasses: Ritual for The Losses
by Hrayr Attarian
Calling vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu brilliant, and her style unique, underestimates both her ingenuity as a composer and the distinctiveness of her oeuvre. Shyu has forged her own path in creative music with an intrepid spirit and restless innovation. Her eighth release as a leader is the intensely personal Zero Grasses: Ritual For The Losses. A cycle of songs which is equally about bereavement and injustice as it is about solace and hope, its message transcends the individual, reaching ...
Continue ReadingTrumpet Master Ambrose Akinmusire - Broad Vision
by Russell Perry
Known as a constantly searching and forward-looking musician, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire won the Thelonious Monk (now Herbie Hancock) International Jazz Competition in 2007 at 27 years old. His first album, Prelude to Cora, announced a bright new talent willing to honor multiple strains of influences from hip-hop to classical with stops at post-bop, funk, and free jazz. His periodic highly-regarded solo efforts have been complemented by a string of excellent sideman collaborations. Recent work from exciting young trumpeter Ambrose Akimusire ...
Continue ReadingRoscoe Mitchell Quartet: Come and See What There Is to See
by Mark Corroto
In a recent interview, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire related the story of when he first visited a jazz club; as an eighth grader in Oakland, he experienced a performance by The Art Ensemble Of Chicago. What a spectacle it must have been and, of course, he would have witnessed the maestro himself, Roscoe Mitchell. Decades later Akinmusire, some 42 years Mitchell's junior, dedicated a song, “Mr. Roscoe (Consider The Simultaneous)," on his release On The Tender Spot Of Every ...
Continue Reading
