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Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd: InWhatStrumentals
by Karl Ackermann
In 2003 Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd released In What Language?, a hybrid jazz/hip hop response to post-9/11 American paranoia. Inspired by many related injustices, the inflection point was the extended detention, handcuffing and humiliation of a prominent Iranian filmmaker passing through JFK International Airport. Seventeen years later America was mired in multiple unprecedented crises, giving cause to repurpose that album. Iyer and Ladd had the instrumental masters from 2003, and release them here as InWhatStrumentals: Music from In What ...
Continue ReadingMonterey Jazz Festival 2019
by Josef Woodard
Monterey Jazz Festival Monterey County Fairgrounds Monterey, CA September 27-19, 2019 It sometimes happens at the historic Monterey Jazz festival that the “main" and most memorable takeaways of a program occur away from the main arena stage. And so it went at the 62nd annual festival in September--at least to these ears, belonging to a Monterey festival veteran. While the arena roster banked on the high profile and varying artistic merits of Diana ...
Continue ReadingAmbrose Akinmusire, Dairo Miyamoto and Other Great New Releases
by Ludovico Granvassu
This week we'll go through a heap of outstanding new releases, ranging from tributes to seminal albums like Soul Station by Eli Degibri and the Far East Suite by Pierre Bertrand, to new releases by master pianists like Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau (in an unreleased duo with Charlie Haden!), Aaron Parks and Simone Graziano. Seasond avant-veterans on ECM (Andrew Cyrille with Leo Smith and Bill Frisell) and vociferous rising stars on Blue Note (Ambrose Akinmusire and James Francies).
Continue ReadingAmbrose Akinmusire: A Rift in Decorum: Live at the Village Vanguard
by Mark E. Gallo
Live albums can be an iffy proposition. Not so with this double CD set recorded live at New York's legendary Village Vanguard. California born Akinmusire has worked with the same band for a number of years and their communication is apparent. Pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Justin Brown supply the support and the embellishment appropriate and compliment the trumpet master throughout. In a program that rides an emotional rollercoaster, Akinmusire offers 16 original compositions over ...
Continue ReadingAmbrose Akinmusire Quartet al Soresina Jazz Festival
by Vincenzo Roggero
Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet Soresina Jazz Festival 2017 Cortile Sala del Podestà 2.7.2017 Conclusione con il botto per la quinta edizione del Soresina Jazz Festival, ad esibirsi infatti nel cortile della Sala del Podestà l'Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet, nell'unica data italiana dell'anno. Trentacinquenne trombettista originario di Oakland, collaboratore ancora in età adolescenziale di musicisti del calibro di Joe Henderson e Steve Coleman, vincitore di prestigiosi premi, Akinmusire è figura atipica nel panorama dei trombettisti attuali. Dotato ...
Continue ReadingAmbrose Akinmusire: A Rift in Decorum: Live at the Village Vanguard
by Mark Sullivan
Live recordings at the venerable Village Vanguard are immediately part of a storied tradition. Fully aware of the spirit of the place, trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire brought his longtime quartet with pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Justin Brown--but he took the unusual step of performing all new, original compositions. This is his third Blue Note album as a leader, following When the Heart Emerges Glistening (2011) and the imagined savior is far easier to paint (2014). He also ...
Continue ReadingAmbrose Akinmusire at SFJAZZ
by Harry S. Pariser
Ambrose Akinmusire SFJAZZSan Francisco, California June 15, 2017 For trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, the band is everything: “When I'm playing with other people, it's hard to produce, because I don't have that relationship. But when I play with my band, it's endless," he told the New York Times in March 2011. Akinmusire has been playing with drummer Justin Brown since they were 14 or 15 years old; they grew up together in a rough-and-tumble ...
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