Ambrose Akinmusire: On The Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment

Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire continues of combining music with social messages on this latest studio album with his working team of Sam Harris on piano, bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Justin Brown. The album is a pastiche of moods, usually leaning towards the melancholic, with the leader’s soft breathy horn opening up and introducing many of the tunes, such as “Tide of Hyancinth”, “Yesss” or “4623” before gradually building up into a cataclysmic African chant, searing cry or drumming drill respectively. He squeezes out his notes on the loose and rhythmic shifting “Blues (We measure the heart with a fist)” and gives gentle puffs over the brushes for “Reset (quiet victories & celebrated defeats)”. Beyond resignation and pathos, there is aggressive and anger, exposed as the trumpeter sprays notes over the fiery  bass strumming and rivulet of drums on “An Interlude (that get’ more intense)” and the elliptical “Mr. Rosco” that features Harris’ fingers, while switching to keyboards on the “In a Silent Way”ish tune “Hooded procession (read the names outloud)”. Jazz lives matter.

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