16 August 2017 - EMPAC
Ambrose Akinmusire
Signed to the legendary label Blue Note Records, Akinmusire is a rising star in American Jazz. At 19, he began touring professionally with saxophonist Steve Colemen, before studying with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Terrence Blanchard at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. In 2007, he won both the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition. Akinmusire has since worked with Jazz icons from Vijay Iyer and Aaron Parks to Esperanza Spalding and Jason Moran, recording two albums as a bandleader, including 2014’s The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint. In 2015, he contributed to rapper Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-nominated album To Pimp a Butterfly.