Ambrose Akinmusire

Since arriving as a bandleader with 2008's Prelude to Cora, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire has surveyed post-bop, ballads, free jazz, funk, and more with equanimity. In 2011, at age 28, he released his Blue Note debut, When the Heart Emerges Glistening, revealing the mature, expansive dimensions in his playing, writing, and arranging. Each subsequent outing offers a different textural and musical emphasis: 2014's The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint included guest vocalists Becca Stevens, Cold Specks, and Theo Bleckman; 2017's post-bop quartet date, A Rift in Decorum: Live at the Village Vanguard, was celebrated as one of the finest jazz outings of the year. 2018's Origami Harvest blended disparate elements like spoken word, chamber music, free improvisation, and hip-hop rhythms. 2020's On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment reinforced the sometimes-gauzy union between jazz and blues.