Ambrose Akinmusire grips with quick-witted virtuosity at the Jazz Café

Ambrose Akinmusire’s gripping, emotionally intense Jazz Café gig in London balanced freedom and form and stretched orthodoxy to the limit. The American trumpeter’s aesthetic is demanding but he draws his audience in with simple themes, a maelstrom of rhythm and clear harmonic lines. Add in extraordinary instrumental control and a rhythm section laden with quick-witted virtuosity, and the near-capacity crowd stood rapt.

This London gig was originally scheduled for last September to promote On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment, Akinmusire’s fifth Blue Note release. Inspired by a return visit to his native Oakland, California, the album captures the trumpeter’s mixed feelings witnessing the radical changes wrought by gentrification. It was that emotional complexity that fired this set.

The evening began with a single trumpet note sustained over a minor key piano and mallets seething underneath. Bassist Harish Raghavan has long been in Akinmusire’s fold, and here his firm woody tone and punchy attack were the band’s foundation. Drummer Timothy Angulo, on only his second tour with Akinmusire, played a leading role, and pyrotechnic Cuban pianist Fabian Almazan did a brilliant job filling in for the album’s Sam Harris.

Theme stated, piano tinkled in zither-like tones, bass and drums moved this way and that and trumpet soared into the upper register, rounded and full. As “Tide of Hyacinth” progressed, moods ebbed and flowed, trumpet and piano chirruped in an intriguing duet and long flowing lines took angular shapes; the piece ended with drums rumbling over a hypnotic riff.

“Yessss” came next, a heartbreaking ballad with sparse harmonies and brushed drums. Here, notes were chosen for maximum effect, pinched tones added emotional weight and sharp stabs echoed over whispered support. “Moment in Between the Rest (To Curve an Ache)”, a waltz, reprised the mood two numbers on.

Later, “Maurice and Michael (Sorry I Didn’t Say Hello)” opened with triumphant trumpet striding over four-in-the-bar piano. But the group’s interplay matched the band’s solo strength, and as trumpet leapt high and low, a two-note stab got a swift piano response and three short notes cut short a thunder of drums. “An Interlude (That Get’ More Intense)”, was all too brief and did just that.

The evening ended with the band at a peak. First with “Roy”, a tribute to the late trumpeter and flugelhornist Roy Hargrove, that combined sorrow and warmth. Rhapsodic solo piano captured Hargrove’s romance and then a quietly brushed New Orleans march set a sombre memorial tone. Akinmusire moved from free-form flurries to heartfelt blues and swooped from high note to low with a single slur. “Umteyo” followed, a blast of fractured modernism built and sustained by one sour note.

★★★★★

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