(Contemporary Jazz) Ambrose Akinmusire - The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier To Paint - 2014, MP3, 320 kbps

Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (Born 01 May 1982) is a forward-thinking musician with a bent toward atmospheric post-bop. Born in Oakland, California, Akinmusire showed early promise by his teens, and gigged professionally while also playing in the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble. Early encounters with such luminaries as saxophonists Joe Henderson and Steve Coleman pushed Akinmusire to focus a keen eye on his own development. He earned his bachelor's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and later his master's from the University of Southern California. Along the way, Akinmusire studied with such trumpet luminaries as master teacher Laurie Frink, Lew Soloff, and Terence Blanchard. Akinmusire has appeared as a sideman on many albums, including works by saxophonist Coleman, pianists Aaron Parks and Vijay Iyer, trombonist Josh Roseman, bassist Esperanza Spalding, and others. In 2007 Akinmusire won the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. A year later he released his debut solo album, Prelude to Cora, on Fresh Sound New Talent. In 2011 Akinmusire returned with his sophomore album, When the Heart Emerges Glistening, on Blue Note Records. he made session appearances on records by a wide array of artists including David Binney's Graylen Epicenter, Chris Dingman's Waking Dreams, Baptiste Trotignon's For a While, and Gerald Clayton's Life Forum. His sophomore Blue Note date, The Imagined Savior Is Easier to Paint, was released in March of 2014.

After the stunning modern jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire delivered on the acclaimed When the Heart Emerges Glistening in 2011, he plays it anything but safe on The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint. With his working quintet — tenor saxophonist Walter Smith, drummer Justin Brown, bassist Harish Raghavan, and pianist Sam Harris — he expands the frame to include guitarist Charles Altura in a sextet or alternating with Smith. In addition, vocalists Becca Stevens, Cold Specks, and Theo Bleckman (all of whom contribute lyrics) appear, as do the Osso String Quartet and flutist Elena Penderhughes. Akinmusire self-produced this set and showcases a diverse range of carefully scripted, genre-blurring compositions — modern classical, vanguard pop, spoken word — in addition to jazz. Opener "Marie Christie" is a piano and trumpet duet where Akinmusire evokes a moody lyric before engaging in a flurry of improvisation. "As We Fight (Willie Penrose)" unfolds gradually. Altura, Smith, and Akinmusire unwind the labyrinthine lyric before a martial snare and undulating bassline quicken the pace as keys and dynamics shift before a series of brief solos. "Vartha" is the most joyous tune here. Initiated by Altura's minor-key minimalist pulse and Raghavan's fluid bassline, it evolves along a linear chromatic line with pianistic embellishments and Akinmusire playing in an uncharacteristic warm, fat tone. "Our Basement (Ed)," written by Stevens, places her in the context of the string quartet's pulsing rhythm and more expressionistic suggestions by the trumpeter, Harris, and Brown. Her provocative phrasing eerily slips between the cracks of arty pop, early Americana, classical music, and vanguard jazz. "The Beauty of Dissolving Portraits" features the trumpeter soloing lyrically with a flute amid a nearly static drone by bass and string quartet. "Asiam (Joan)," inspired by Joni Mitchell, features Bleckman's gorgeous singing appended by his overdubbed trademark vocal effects and harmonies, as he weaves them inside an emotive harmonic frame by the quintet. "Bubbles (John William Sublett)" is deeply rhythmic, knotty post-bop with a killer Raghavan solo. "Ceaseless Inexhaustible Child (Cyntoia Brown)" features Cold Specks' gloomy soul vocal as the voice of its subject (a young woman imprisoned for life at the age of 16). She sings above a near-gospel melody ringed with processional piano, bluesy guitar, and Akinmusire's wailing, soaring, near-joyous trumpet as a contrasting second voice. "Recall for Those Absent" (a roll call of the names of young black men killed by police and read by a child) gives way to the free quintet interaction of "J.E. Nilmah (Ecclesiastes 6:10)," appended by a chamber piece, "Inflatedbyspinning," for flute, bass, and string quartet The 16-minute live closer, "Richard (Conduit)," is kinetic, spiraling jazz. It crosses modal, free, and post-bop terrains and everyone gets ample room to solo. The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint is provocative: its moodiness, myriad musical directions, and 79-minute length may be initially off-putting. What is revealed with repeated listening, however, is that this set's achievement is commensurate with its ambition.