Ambrose Akinmusire

Ambrose Akinmusire

With the announcement last year that Blue Note had signed Oakland-raised trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, Bay Area music lovers enjoyed yet another surge of regional pride. A standout in the Berkeley High Jazz Band, he started gigging as a teenager with bandleaders Howard Wiley and Marcus Shelby, and later attended the Manhattan School of Music on full scholarship. He catapulted to widespread recognition with his 2007 triumph at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, duly impressing a panel of brass royalty including Terence Blanchard, Quincy Jones, Clark Terry and Roy Hargrove. Possessing a huge, warm tone and daunting technique, Akinmusire is in the thick of the creative action, performing and recording with a litany of rising stars, such as bassist Linda Oh, tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III and the ubiquitous Esperanza Spalding. Ambrose's high-octane quintet evokes memories of mid-60s Miles and their Blue Note Records debut, When the Heart Emerges Glistening, will be released in April.

Artist Personnel

Ambrose Akinmusire trumpet
Walter Smith III tenor saxophone
Sam Harris piano
Burniss Travis bass
Justin Brown drums

Artist Website

"Believe the hype for once…Akinmusire’s hypermodern yet shapely themes are not so much performed as lived and breathed by a brilliant young group." — Evening Standard
"…a fiercely gifted young trumpeter." — The New York Times