Honey From A Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
Ambrose Akinmusire
Released January 31, 2025
Jazzwise Top 10 Albums of the Year 2025
Grammy Nominee for Best Alternative Jazz Album 2026
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2025
JAZZ.FM91 Best Jazz Albums of 2025
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_myV5HcNAZ_E5NzZ99AxZLRgyDp6gHnFRo
Spotify:
About:
Composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s honey from a winter stone was released January 31, 2025, on Nonesuch Records. The album, which Ambrose calls a “self-portrait,” features improvisational vocalist Kokayi, pianist Sam Harris, Chiquitamagic on synthesizer, drummer Justin Brown, and the Mivos Quartet (violinist Olivia Deprato and Maya Bennardo, violist Victor Lowrie Tafoya, cellist Tyler Borden). Akinmusire says, “In many respects this entire work is inspired by and is an homage to the work of the composer Julius Eastman and his organic music concept.” The opening track, “muffled screams,” can be heard here:
“This album is about the fears and struggles I personally face, as well as those many Black men endure: colorism, erasure, and the question of who gets to speak for my community, and why,” Akinmusire explains. “There’s also the constant negotiation of what happens when I don’t conform to certain expectations or when I choose to reject those imposed on me. These are the complexities I navigate daily.
“When I made this album, I was thinking about others who face these same struggles,” he continues. “I’m always considering who I represent—on all levels, in all the roles I play within my various communities. It’s about understanding the weight of those roles and the responsibility that comes with them.”
On the track “muffled screams,” Akinmusire reflects, “It emerged from a near-death experience, which I survived because I wanted to be alive to protect my son. Kokayi improvised the lyrics based on personal stories I shared with him.”
“Some of these ideas didn’t require direct conversation,” he adds. “The experience is so universally understood that words become unnecessary. Kokayi’s approach is pure improvisation, ensuring each performance is unique. I don’t simply view him as a rapper—he’s an instrument in his own right. The way he interacts with rhythm, rapping in harmony with the chords, brings a dynamic and profound quality to the music every time.”
The New York Times has said: “For arguably the most technically gifted trumpeter of his generation, a lot of Ambrose Akinmusire’s breakthroughs actually come from letting go of standards and structures … Lately Akinmusire has been making some of the most intimate, spellbinding music of his career.”
DownBeat has said: “Akinmusire has created music with a deep, soulful thoughtfulness and purpose that stretches boundaries and pulls at the heartstrings.”
During his career, Ambrose Akinmusire has paradoxically situated himself in both the center and the periphery of jazz, most recently emerging in classical and hip-hop circles. He is on a perpetual quest for new paradigms, masterfully weaving inspiration from other genres, arts, and life in general into compositions that are as poetic and graceful as they are bold and unflinching. His unorthodox approach to sound and composition make him a regular on critics’ polls and have earned him grants and commissions from the Doris Duke Foundation, the MAP Fund, the Kennedy Center, The Berlin Jazz Festival, and the Monterey Jazz. While Akinmusire continues to garner accolades, his reach is always beyond—himself, his instrument, genre, form, preconceived notions, and anything else imposing limitations.
Motivated primarily by the spiritual and practical value of art, Akinmusire wants to remove the wall of erudition surrounding his music. He aspires to create richly textured emotional landscapes that tell the stories of the community, record the time, and change the standard. While committed to continuing the lineage of Black invention and innovation, he manages to honor tradition without being stifled by it.
Akinmusire is a rigorous practitioner with an uncompromising dedication to creation. “I’ve learned to accept the consequences of believing in invention and creativity. You’re gonna be misunderstood. But my horse blinders have gotten a lot longer and a lot thicker over the years.”
In 2010, Ambrose Akinmusire was signed to Blue Note Records; his debut for the label, When the Heart Emerges Glistening, drew worldwide accolades. The Los Angeles Times observed that “Akinmusire sounds less like a rising star than one that was already at great heights and just waiting to be discovered.” Akinmusire’s first Nonesuch release, 2023’s Owl Song, was recently nominated for a Best Jazz Instrumental Album Grammy Award and received critical praise, with the Guardian calling it a “beautiful trio album … As befits the title, Owl Song doesn’t raise its voice much, but what it quietly says is joyously vivid, even spine-tingling.”
Track Listing:
1. muffled screams 15:25
2. Bloomed (the ongoing processional of nighas in hoodies) 07:35
3. MYanx. 09:37
4. Owled 12:49
5. s-/Kinfolks 29:12
All compositions by Ambrose Akinmusire
Lyrics by C. Walker (1), and Kokayi (3-5)
Personnel:
Ambrose Akinmusire: trumpet (1-5)
Kokayi: vocals (1, 3-5)
Sam Harris: piano (1-5)
Chiquitamagic: synthesizers (1-5), vocal
Justin Brown: drums (1-5)
Mivos Quartet (1-5)
Olivia Deprato: violin
Maya Bennardo: violin
Victor Lowrie Tafoya: viola
Tyler Borden: cello
Produced by Ambrose Akinmusire
Recorded May 21, 2023 at the Terrarium, Minneapolis, MN, by Jason Orris
Mixed by Adam Munoz at Opus Studios Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Mastered by Dave Darlington in New York, NY
Design by Ben Tousley
Painting by J. Brian
Review:
Ambrose Akinmusire holds high expectations for himself as a man and a musician. His thinking and musical practices are inseparable from one another and concern responsibility (for one’s community, oneself, and one’s family) and individual and collective struggle governed by the spirit of creative exploration and discovery. Honey from a Winter Stone is Akinmusire’s eighth album and second for Nonesuch; it follows 2023’s widely acclaimed, Grammy-nominated Owl Song with guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Herlin Riley. Here, he brought his live rhythm section — pianist Sam Harris and drummer Justin Brown — with synth sorceress Chiquita Magic, vocal improviser Kokayi, and the Mivos Quartet. Akinmusire calls this album a self-portrait that illustrates his personal belief that “I am tension and release.” Further, he credits the inspiration of late composer Julius Eastman for these five long pieces and dedicates the album to him in homage.
Opener “muffled screams” is the album’s pre-release single at 15-and-a-half minutes. A soft lyrical trumpet and nearly droning piano introduce the minor-key theme. Synths underscore the piano’s reach to the mid- and upper registers, as bells, cymbals, and shakers frame the dialogue. Brown’s tom-toms and a warm, dissonant trumpet announce the melody at 3:30 with a kick drum, two-chord piano vamp, and string quartet. Kokayi improvises lyrics (in key) that detail the composer’s near-death experience and inspired the composition. The flow of crossing rhythms, strings, rounded bass sounds, and sub bass offer swirling color, nearly elastic tension, and tonal speculation. The first half of “Bloomed (the ongoing processional of nighas in hoodies)” is played by a string quartet that collides with post-bop bass, drums, piano, and a knotty, gritty trumpet solo as the strings pulse and flow in the backdrop. “MYanx.” (pronounced “my angst”) opens with an Afro-Latin drum solo before Chiquita Magic’s synth bass rolls up top playing doomy vamps. Brown shifts to breakbeat funk under Kokayi’s rap about the societal and personal needs for health — economic, emotional, mental, and physical — and love. Akinmusire fills out his spoken lines as piano cascades with strings through it all with a dreamlike texture. The first half of “Owled” is an impressionist-esque string quartet. Mivos expresses two dovetailing melodies. Halfway through its nearly 13 minutes, the piano enters. At four-and-a-half minutes, funky drums and loops, synth bassline, and Kokayi’s words elucidate struggle in finger-popping jazz-hop. A third section highlights a chamber quintet with piano framed by ambience, and a sub bassline — washed-out cymbals usher in Akinmusire’s modal solo before the band returns in abstract jazz fusion. The 29-minute “s-Kinfolks” is a sprawl. Recorded after a night of clubbing and drinking, it reflects the late-night ethos and takes many harmonic and rhythmic chances, yet holds together effortlessly through its many sections — some composed, some improvised — allowing for multiple instances of tension and release. Honey from a Winter Stone is arguably the most forward-thinking, emotionally vulnerable, and moving album in Akinmusire’s catalog. It offers an intimate musical language that transcends genres while being at home in them all.
Thom Jurek (AllMusic)
