AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE

VILLAGE VANGUARD / APRIL 22-27

Oakland-born Ambrose Akimusire is a composer who plays trumpet. For him, that instrument is not a showcase for bebop level, virtuoso solos; it is the vessel for Ambrose’s musical ideas. A sideman of note, as evidenced by his work with Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Ambrose won both the Thelonious Monk International Trumpet Competition and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition in 2007. He recorded a number of critically acclaimed recordings, including his latest album, Honey from a Winter Stone (Nonesuch, 2024), an avant/third stream album of stark beauty. The trumpeter brings a cadre of like-minded musicians to the Vanguard: bassist Harwish Raghavan, pianist Sam Harris and drummer Justin Brown, for evenings of improvisational bliss. E.H