New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire's Nonesuch Records debut album, Owl Song, is out now. The album, featuring a trio with two musicians Akinmusire has long admired, guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Herlin Riley, has landed on the New York Times' list of Best Jazz Albums of 2023 and on Jazzwise's Albums of the Year list. Uncut says: "This is subtly profound music, full of meditative, focused beauty." "A quiet rush of gorgeous sound where space, tone and beauty come together in one of the most impactful albums of 2023," says DownBeat's five-star review. "This is one of the most interesting recordings to come along in a very long time by one of the most interesting artists of our time."
"Akinmusire has been making some of the most intimate, spellbinding music of his career," says the New York Times. "Even in its simplicity, Akinmusire's trumpet can feel almost dangerously tender." Pitchfork calls his work "music that seeks peace not just despite a world of unrest, but within it." The
Boston Globe says: "Akinmusire ranks high among the most gifted and socially conscious composers of his generation."
"This is my reaction to being assaulted by information," Akinmusire says of Owl Song. "This record is me wanting to create a safe space. Part of the challenge was: Can I create something that's oriented around open space, the way some of the records I love the most do?"
He says of his collaborators, "I had a feeling of wanting to record with Bill from the first time we played—it was a duo performance, very little rehearsal. We just played through some of my songs, and it worked. One of Bill's special gifts is the ability to shape a piece he's just heard for the first time. He seems to know what the music wants before the first note.
"With Herlin, his commitment to beauty you can find in the groove. I never like to tell musicians too much about what I'm going for, because it should be about what these particular people bring … I said, 'I know you're the right person for this because of the way you approach the groove.' And, of course, what he did is just beautiful." He continues, "Also, I wanted to put people together who didn't seem like they would go together ... and it turns out they haven't played a lot. So, it was cross generational, cross subgenre, cross whatever."
Ambrose Akinmusire's musical gifts developed rapidly. He grew up in Oakland, California, and while in high school he caught the attention of saxophonist Steve Coleman. Akinmusire joined Coleman's Five Elements at age nineteen, touring while also a student at Manhattan School of Music. He then pursued further study—earning a master's degree at the University of Southern California, then attending the Thelonius Monk
Institute in Los Angeles, where his mentors included Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. He is currently the Artistic
Director of the Hancock Institute.
In 2010, he was signed to Blue Note Records; his debut for the label, When the
Heart Emerges Glistening, drew worldwide accolades. The Los Angeles Times observed that "Akinmusire sounds less like a rising star than one that was already at great heights and just waiting to be discovered."
In the wake of the acclaim for his debut, Akinmusire composed music for strings and voice (The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint, 2014), appeared on Kendrick Lamar's landmark To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), and conjured a tapestry called Origami Harvest (2018) that explored the complexities of Black. His next project, On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment, furthered that narrative direction. Released two weeks after the murder of
George Floyd, it contained poignant laments about income inequality and the effects of rapid gentrification on communities like those in the Bay Area where he grew up.
Owl Song is the first of three records Akinmusire is releasing on Nonesuch over the next year. Each will spotlight a distinct element of his musical world and involve different instrumentation and production approaches.
