2011 · Album
When the Heart Emerges Glistening
Blue Note Records · Released: 5 April 2011 · Album Number: Second studio album
A Young Trumpeter Finding His Voice
Akinmusire's second album shows a musician settling into his own sound with real confidence.
When the Heart Emerges Glistening arrives as Ambrose Akinmusire's second statement on Blue Note, and it's noticeably more assured than what came before. By this point in his career, Akinmusire has stopped auditioning for your approval and started making the album he actually wanted to make. The writing is sharper, the band sounds tighter, and there's less of that early-career reaching for depth and more of an actual deep breath being taken.
The album doesn't reinvent jazz trumpet playing or anything like that — Akinmusire isn't trying to. What he does is take the language he inherited from the hard bop tradition and the post-bop modernists and speak it like a person who has something specific to say right now. The music feels immediate and uncluttered. There's room in these arrangements. The horns breathe. The rhythm section — whoever's holding it down here — knows when to push and when to lay back, which is harder than it sounds and more essential than critics usually admit.
If you've heard Akinmusire's work and wanted to like it but felt like something was still cooking, this is where the meal arrives plated. It's a straightforward, honest record. Blue Note CEO Bruce Lundvall apparently thought enough of it to put his endorsement in the album booklet itself, which tells you something about institutional confidence in what's happening here. This isn't the album to start with if you're brand new to the trumpet — go elsewhere for that. But if you're already paying attention to modern jazz, this one deserves a full listen.
Who's playing
Harish Raghavanbass
Gerald Claytonpiano
Walter Smith IIItenor saxophone
Justin Browndrums
