Ambrose Akinmusire

Jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire delivered an exciting and exceptional show for last month’s Brighton Festival.

The multi-award winning musician cranked up the intensity for his performance at the Brighton Dome on May 21 with a set that belied the relatively accessible vibe of his most recent recordings on the legendary Blue Note record label, with an apparent free-roaming vigour that appeared to surprise a few festival goers.

Much has been made of the influence of contemporary musical styles in Akinmusire’s playing, and there were certainly some glorious grooves which had echoes of hip hop, and dance music on the off-beat .

Elsewhere there were passages of awesome, tight, more traditional, jazz workouts, which wouldn’t have sounded out of place coming from US greats of bygone years.

He’s a generous band leader who routinely stepped back into the shadows to allow the spotlight to fall on his excellent band (Sam Harris, on piano;Harish Raghavan, on bass; and Tim Angulo, on drums) when they performed solos or really hit their collective stride.

The band made a huge sound for just a four-piece and created some slippery elusive melodies amid some more challenging sequences, before giving the audience something more sympathetic to return to.

His solos were captivating and at times achingly soulful, none more so than a lament to a late mentor, and a couple of longer pieces were so utterly hypnotic and perfectly performed that you could be forgiven for becoming lost in the wonder of it all and wishing that Ambrose and his band could play on for at least another 72 hours...

SEE ALSO: Classical music at Brighton Festival - Review