Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet

Blue Note recording artist and SJW faculty member and alumnus Ambrose Akinmusire accurately describes his music as being situated in both the center and the periphery of jazz, as well as emerging into classical and hip-hop. One of the most exciting and distinctive artists in jazz today, Ambrose has developed an engaging, atmospheric sound as a trumpeter and as a composer. Heavily influenced by early encounters with saxophonists Steve Coleman and Joe Henderson while a student here at SJW, as well as by extended studies with trumpet artists Lew Soloff and Terence Blanchard, his star rose rapidly after he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz competition in 2007. This led to appearances on recordings by Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer, and Esperanza Spalding, among others. Akinmusire returns to SJW this summer, having established a reputation for a genre-blurring artistic vision encompassing classical forms as well as the spoken word.