Ambrose Akinmusire: Honey From A Winter Stone

Since his debut in 2008 at age 26, Ambrose Akinmusire has created a sapient body of work featuring some of the most unique and sophisticated sounds in contemporary music.

His new release, honey from a winter stone is a dazzling kaleidoscope of jazz, hip-hop, and chamber music, as well as a commentary on the contemporary black experience.

Akinmusire said, "[i]n 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."

Eastman (1940-1990) was an American composer and iconoclast who wrote about the racism and homophobia he felt as a gay, black man with music that had provocative titles such as "Gay Guerilla" and "Evil Ni**er."

Eastman's prodigious talent brought him to the attention of Lukas Foss who named him a Creative Associate at the University of Buffalo's Center of the Creative and Performing Arts (now the Center for 21st Century Music) where he served on of the Department of Music faculty from 1967-1975.

Eastman's theory of "organic music" which, while generally reflecting the avant-garde minimalism of its time, included elements of jazz as well as a nascent hip-hop aesthetic. His goal was to create the ideal conditions for the spontaneous expression of music.

Sadly, Eastman's bright star burned out as professional opportunities for an outspoken gay, black man in the world of classical music dried up. Eastman died at age 49 in Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Hospital.

Happily, his musical legacy seems to be flickering back to life thanks to musicians like Akinmusire who have drawn inspiration from Eastman's work. "honey from a winter stone" employs Eastman's technique of layering diverse sounds; Akinmusire begins with a musical palette based in jazz rather than Eastman's minimalist serialism.

That said, the album's five compositions may be fairly classified as tone poems with clear, classical and chamber jazz elements contributed by the Mivos Quartet, with whom Akinmusire collaborated on Origami Harvest (2018).

As to his inspiration, Akinmusire said: "This album is a self portrait . . . it 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."

From the beginning of "Bloomed (the ongoing procession of nighas in the hoodies)" to 3:12, pianist Sam Harris and the Mivos Quartet perform a minimalist quintet that would be at home in any chamber music program. They are joined by Justin Brown's drums and Akinmusire's lightning-fast bebop trumpet runs.

The strings return after a minute and a half reprising the original theme, but now with strains of Akinmusire's improvisations. Composed and improvised music fluidly converse in a carefully prepared but unconstrained musical environment.

I recently had the opportunity to discuss the Mivos Quartet's contribution to '"honey from a winter stone" with violist Victor Lowrie Tafoya.

Tafoya explained that while the Mivos musicians and Akinmusire all attended the Manhattan School of Music, "we never met each other because we were kept apart in our separate silos of music."

Tafoya described the process of recording, which included written scores as well as musical spaces left open for improvisation.

We began in Minneapolis with two shows at the Walker. One was basically a completely improvised set with all of us sort of taking turns and just creating the music spontaneously with a little bit of guidance from him. The second show was the premiere of the new material. We recorded it the next day.

This intentional spontaneity is a key element of both jazz and Julius Eastman's theory of "organic music;" it can be heard in the album's final cut, the 29 minute "s-/Kinfolks."

The Mivos Quartet squeaks and scrapes before a trumpet interlude that stops and starts amidst Chiquitamagic's spacey synthesizers and Justin Brown's syncopated fills. A sad trumpet and minor harmonies lead into a defiant, hip-hop interlude by Kokayi (16:28):

"We all can't win—I seen you out there watching me,
You give me rocks so I can sink when I swim.
I guess that way you got me out here with the mind of a slave."

Akinmusire's trumpet, along with piano, drums, and strings fade in and out before "s-/Kinfolks" conclusion, informed by the beautiful but sad shared musical experience.

honey from a winter stone is a profound musical statement inspired by the past, calling out the ugliness of the present, and suggesting a better future.

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