The most adventurous and widely admired jazz trumpeter on the new international jazz scene at the moment Ambrose Akinmusire is to play the Bray jazz festival this year.

It is just over a year since the release of the trumpeter’s latest album The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier To Paint his extraordinary form in recent years if anything enhanced on this showing. Apocalyptic in mood, with a strong socially conscious side to it, ‘Rollcall For Those Absent’ just one of the highlights with the voice of a little child reciting a list of names familiar from news reports including Timothy Stansbury, Amadou Diallo, and Trayvon Martin’s, victims of racism in America, building on the social commentary while the liturgical aspect of Akinmusire’s work beyond the oblique reference in the album’s title surfaces explicitly and in a spirit of humility on the increasingly free-form ‘J E Nilmah (Ecclesiastes 6:10).’

Born in Oakland, California, talent-spotted by Steve Coleman and recruited to the MBASE pioneer’s band as a teen, going on to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2007, Akinmusire is now signed to Blue Note who released his most recent album. He plays Bray on 3 May with his band, featuring Sam Harris on piano; Harish Raghavan, bass; and Justin Brown, drums. Stephen Graham

Booking details and additional information may be found here