On The Tender Spot Of Every Calloused Moment

The title of Ambrose Akinmusire's sixth Blue Note album is particularly poignant upon its release in June of 2020. It was issued less than two weeks after the brutal public killing of unarmed George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman, setting off a wave of protests and uprisings across the globe. Its title refers to a 2016 trip to his native Oakland, California, where he witnessed the physical changes wrought by the encroaching gentrification from Silicon Valley's overflow, which displaced longtime, often-impoverished residents. Performed (mostly) by his longtime quartet -- pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown -- it reinforces jazz and blues as twin expressions of the Black Experience in American life. It's there right from the start in the aching wail and moan of his horn, which introduces "Tide of Hyacinth," the set's opening track. It gives way shortly thereafter to group interplay that flexes its improvisational muscle even as Akinmusire refocuses attention repeatedly. Just past the halfway mark, Jesus Diaz guests on percussion and spoken word, recontextualizing both jazz and blues as branches of folk music from the African continent. It's followed by "Yesss," which commences as a ballad of exquisite, heartbreaking beauty that features Raghavan evoking emotional sonorities from his arco bassline; it underscores the economical yet expressive exchanges between trumpeter and pianist. "Mr. Roscoe" (after Roscoe Mitchell) is a knotty post-bop composition that flows into kinetic group improv for a time. Akinmusire wrote it after meeting and playing with the saxophonist for the first time. (It was actually their second encounter: In eighth grade he won tickets to a jazz show at Yoshi’s. He went with his mom and had his mind blown by a ceremonially painted Art Ensemble of Chicago.) Two tunes later, Akinmusire introduces "Reset: Quiet Victories & Celebrated Defeats," a searing ballad where the trumpeter reaches deep into a funereally slow processional that attempts to "express the pain, beauty, and optimism of blackness." Two tunes later, Akinmusire reveals both in "Roy," a tender, reflective tribute to the late trumpeter Roy Hargrove. In "Blues (We Measure the Heart with a Fist)," dissonant splatters and tones, oddly spaced rim shots, spectral piano chords, and woody plucked bass strings explore textural spaces in and around the collective's sound. Little more than halfway through, they come together and deliver a striking modal blues. The set closes with "Hooded Procession (Read the Names Aloud)," one of two pieces here where Akinmusire plays Rhodes piano to remember the fallen in the African-American struggle for equality, freedom, and opportunity. While this outing is no less brimming with creative and provocative ideas for jazz by Akinmusire, it is perhaps, his most emotionally searing and satisfying studio outing. ~ Thom Jurek