
Ambrose Akinmusire
on the tender spot of every calloused moment
In an especially tough year for reasons I don’t need to tell you about, this album by genius composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire felt like a salve: an affecting, heart-wrenching album of deep blues that felt like the score to a sad, solemn walk through existence in 2020. Akinmusire is often left out of discussions of the best in jazz’s new wave, but he shouldn’t be any longer; jazz in 2020 rarely got better than this. — Andrew Winistorfer