DOWNBEAT | Ambrose Akinmusire’s Pure Pursuit Of Sound
Hearing Ambrose Akinmusire perform brings to mind Louis Armstrong’s description of first hearing cornetist Bix Beiderbecke: “Those pretty notes went right through me.”
Akinmusire’s trumpet style sounds nothing like Beiderbecke’s, but his music does share a penetrating quality with that of the early jazz icon. Confident, technically brilliant and often bravura, his playing exudes an exquisite tenderness.