Walker Art Center presents
Ambrose Akinmusire:
Honey from a winter's stone
Friday–Saturday, May 19–20, 2023
8:00 pm
McGuire Theater
AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE:
Honey from a winter’s stone
Friday, May 19
An evening of improvisation features new and unusual configurations and experiments from 11 musicians, under the direction of Akinmusire. Program announced from stage.
Saturday, May 20
World premiere of the evening-length composition by Akinmusire for the Honey from a winter’s stone ensemble.
AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE
Trumpet
KOKAYI
Voice
COLE PULICE*
Saxophone + Effects
MARY HALVORSON*
Guitar
SAM HARRIS
Piano + Keyboards
CHIQUITAMAGIC
Keyboards
OLIVIA DE PRATO & MAYA BENNARDO
Violin
VICTOR LOWRIE TAFOYA
Viola
TYLER J. BRODEN
Cello
JUSTIN BROWN
Drums
*Performing Friday night only.
A NOTE FROM AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE
I was pleased when, two years ago, Walker curators Philip Bither and Doug Benidt approached me about putting together a special two-part evening that would showcase some of my newest writing and a range of artists I admire. I quickly decided to call the project Honey from a winter's stone and thought the first night should be more open ended. I wanted to experience what it would be like to have some of my favorite creative people on stage all at once and just pressed to play with different configurations.
On the second night, I’ll be offering new material specifically composed for the majority of the musicians from night one. The ensemble coincidentally resembles a number of the artists from my 2018 recording Origami Harvest. I’m hoping that elements from the first night will find their way into some of the more improvised settings of night two, but I’m open to it not happening as well. A lot of the things I wrote for Honey from a winter's stone are related to some of my recent thoughts around resilience and colorism.
Ultimately, I’m always just trying to create healing spaces with my projects.
Ambrose Akinmusire
May 2023
Artist Bios
Described by NPR Music as “one of the most acclaimed jazz artists of his generation, a trumpeter of deep expressive resources and a composer of kaleidoscopic vision,” AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE has made a home at the crossroads of different musical forms and languages, from post-bop and avant-garde jazz to contemporary chamber music and hip-hop to singer-songwriter aesthetics. His 2018 release Origami Harvest features rapper Kool A.D. with the Mivos String Quartet and was named a top album of the year by the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times and more.
The Oakland, California native and Blue Note recording artist has made consistently adventurous, enduring music with a committed band of dear friends: pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Justin Brown, whose unforgettable chemistry is captured on the 2017 double album A Rift in Decorum: Live at the Village Vanguard (“amazingly effective” – DownBeat). The quartet reaches new heights with their GRAMMY-nominated 2020 release on the tender spot of every calloused moment, featuring liner notes by the great Archie Shepp. On these and other releases, Akinmusire aspires to create richly textured emotional landscapes that tell the stories of the community, record the time and change the standard. While committed to the lineage of black invention and innovation, he is able to honor tradition without being stifled by it.
Akinmusire has received numerous composer commissions: from the Berlin Jazz Festival for "Mae Mae", a suite based on Mattie May Thomas’s 1939 field recordings; from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Liquid Music Commission (for Origami Harvest); from The Kennedy Center for “Untitled,” featuring MacArthur Fellow Cécile McLorin Salvant and others; from the Hyde Park Jazz Festival Commission for “Banyan,” a work for 12- piece ensemble that builds on Ambrose’s interest in the role of the griot and mentor in social and jazz history; and the Monterey Jazz Festival Commission for “The Forgotten Places” featuring Salvant, Theo Bleckmann and quartet plus clarinet, cello, harp and guitar. More recently, Akinmusire has branched out as a composer and has begun creating music for film and television projects including, most notably, the new Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal series, “Blindspotting.”
Following his evocative 2007 debut Prelude... To Cora on the Fresh Sound label, Akinmusire joined Blue Note in 2011 with when the heart emerges glistening, produced by Jason Moran and featuring Raghavan and Brown with Gerald Clayton on piano and Walter Smith III on tenor sax. Akinmusire’s lyricism, distinctive harmonic language and rich sense of dynamic and timbral contrast set him apart. Highly virtuosic in execution, the music had a pointed social dimension as well: “My Name Is Oscar” initiated what became a theme linking all of Akinmusire’s studio albums, in which the names of murdered African Americans are recited and remembered with dignity. On the imagined savior is far easier to paint (2014), hailed as “a gorgeous, moving album” in JazzTimes, “Roll Call for Those Absent” took up the matter of injustice once again, as did “Free, White and 21” on Origami Harvest and the stark solo Fender Rhodes finale “Hooded Procession (read the names outloud)” on calloused moment.
“The Imagined Savior” found Akinmusire broadening his sonic and stylistic reach as well by incorporating guitarist Charles Altura, the Osso String Quartet and singers/cowriters Becca Stevens, Theo Bleckmann and Cold Specks, each with their own widely diverging vocal sound. (Akinmusire reciprocated, playing on Cold Specks’ 2014 release Neuroplasticity.) On calloused moment, vocalist Genevieve Artadi of Knower sings original lyrics on Akinmusire’s “Cynical sideliners,” in an affecting duet with the leader on Rhodes. Percussionist/vocalist Jesus Diaz also contributes Yoruba vocals on the opening “Tide of Hyacinth.”
Akinmusire has performed as a featured soloist with Archie Shepp’s Attica Blues Big Band as well as AACM multireeds innovator Roscoe Mitchell in an intimate quartet setting at San Francisco’s The Lab (a two-night event documented on the live album Come and See What There Is to See). “Mr. Roscoe (consider the simultaneous),” from Famoudou Don Moye and Amina Claudine Myers, as well as calloused moment, finds Akinmusire honoring Mitchell and grappling on his own terms with lessons learned under Mitchell’s wing.
In addition to his five Blue Note outings, Akinmusire has made signal contributions to groundbreaking albums across a wide stylistic and genre-defying spectrum, including Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl and Brad Mehldau’s Finding Gabriel. He has collaborated with acclaimed pianist Kris Davis in duo and trio settings at the Vision Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival and elsewhere. He appears on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 landmark To Pimp a Butterfly, on the closing track “Mortal Man.” In 2016 he was a featured soloist and composer with the WDR Big Band in Cologne, performing alongside pianist/arranger/conductor Orrin Evans. He played on Joni Mitchell’s 2014 release Love Has Many Faces, and in 2018 accompanied Chaka Khan, James Taylor, and other luminaries honoring Mitchell in a gala concert documented on Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration. Other sideman highlights include recordings by Jack DeJohnette, Marcus Miller, Steve Coleman, and Terri Lyne Carrington. Akinmusire received his 2nd GRAMMY nomination --for “Best Improvised Solo”-- on Carrington’s 2022 release, New Standards Vol 1.
In addition to winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2007 and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition the same year, Akinmusire has frequently topped the JazzTimes and Downbeat annual critics polls. He has received the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award (2014); Le Grand Prix de l’Académie du Jazz (2014); Germany’s ECHO Jazz Award (Instrumentalist of the Year/Brass); and The Netherlands’ Paul Acket Award. A sought-after educator as well, Akinmusire has taught at the Dave Brubeck Institute, Stanford Jazz Workshop, Musik-Akademie Basel, Banff Centre, Berklee College of Music (as Artist-in-Residence), Princeton University, McGill University, Indiana University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Southern California, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, New Zealand School of Music, Vriednden Antwerpen and more.
A graduate of Manhattan School of Music, Akinmusire lived for several years in New York before returning to the West Coast to attend the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles while also pursuing a master’s degree at USC’s Thornton School of Music. During another five-year stint in New York he performed with the likes of Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks and Esperanza Spalding. He then returned to LA and joined the faculty at Thornton for two years before coming full circle: back to Oakland, where he now resides with his family.
It’s hard to pin down the sound of drummer and composer JUSTIN BROWN. As Modern Drummer pointed out, “there’s nothing about the way he plays that boxes him into any particular era or camp.” Although truly versatile and virtuosic, mastery never overcomes his musicianship. Justin has the technical faculties to meet aggressive situations with full expression and creativity just as adeptly as with more sensitive or floaty material. Intricacy and musicality are accomplished alongside soulful accessibility. An alert and responsive drummer, he’s committed to delivering what the music requires and making it feel right.
Born in Richmond, California, drummer Brown is one of the most versatile and sought after drummers of this generation. After years as an essential member of groups led by Ambrose Akinmusire, Thundercat, and Flying Lotus – he’s also been tapped to round out the sound for Esperanza Spalding, Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Terence Blanchard, Bilal, Vijay Iyer, and many others – Brown is finally ready to extend his reach beyond the drum set to lead his own band, NYEUSI. In June 2018 Justin released his first album as a leader, NYEUSI, on Biophilia Records. It is a modern-sounding and forward-thinking record in every respect, not defined by genre, style, or groove. Brown himself says: “it’s a jazz album, it’s a hip hop album, it’s an instrumental album. Jazz is living in the now.” He says he can’t help adapting to all kinds of styles. “You have to have one foot in the past and one foot in the future, and that’s what I hope for people to hear when they hear this album.”
CHIQUITAMAGIC is an underground latinx artist / producer from Bogotá, Colombia and based in Toronto, Canada. Her music can be described as futuristic pop with elements of funk, EDM, choral music & jazz. She uses microtonal synths, her voice, and various drum machines to make her uniquely captivating sound. After studying jazz piano & voice at McGill University, she has gone on to produce and release five albums under the moniker chiquitamagic & play with artists from the L.A jazz punk scene like KNOWER, Genevieve Artadi, & Louis Cole.
Guitarist and composer MARY HALVORSON has been described as “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), ”NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz—or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). In recent Downbeat Critics Polls Halvorson has been celebrated as guitarist, rising star jazz artist, and rising star composer of the year, and in 2019 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Halvorson’s most recent releases, Amaryllis and Belladonna, showcase her string quartet writing deftly interpreted by The Mivos Quartet, alongside a brand new sextet featuring Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums). The twin debuts for Nonesuch Records, released in May 2022, were called “...new landmarks in Halvorson’s already inimitable discography” in a five star review by The Guardian.
Halvorson has also released a series of critically acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label, from Dragon’s Head (2008), her trio debut featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith, expanding to a quintet with trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon on Saturn Sings (2010) and Bending Bridges (2012), a septet with tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik on Illusionary Sea (2014), and an octet with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn on Away With You (2016). Also for Firehouse 12, she released the solo guitar album Meltframe (2015), plus two albums with her band Code Girl (2018, 2020), featuring Halvorson’s own lyrics.
One of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, over the past decade Halvorson has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot and John Zorn. She is also part of several collaborative projects, most notably the longstanding trio Thumbscrew with Michael Formanek on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums.
SAM HARRIS is a pianist from Dallas, Texas. He has toured and recorded extensively with artists like Ambrose Akinmusire, Melissa Aldana, Logan Richardson, Rudy Royston, and Ben Van Gelder. He is featured on Akinmusire’s Grammy-nominated album, on the tender spot of every calloused moment, as well as Aldana’s Visions. For more than a decade, Sam has performed with his trio featuring bassist Martin Nevin and drummer Craig Weinrib. In 2018, they released HARMONY, a collection of ambient blues meditations. The album was included in the New York Times’ “Best Jazz of 2018” list. Sam released SOLO in 2021, a series of placid sonic environments for piano and synthesizers recorded at his home, garnering praise in Bandcamp’s monthly “Best Jazz on Bandcamp” series.
KOKAYI. Artist. Producer. Educator. Connector of dots…Preeminent Improvisational Vocalist, Artist, Producer, GRAMMY-nominated musician, and multi-disciplinary fine artist is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow for Music Composition, Halcyon Arts Fellow, and Nicholson Arts Fellow, who can be heard on over 60 titles spanning: Jazz, Hip Hop, Rock, and R&B. “My work is an amalgamation of his life experiences as filtered through, DC, Go-go, and the cultural influences created and passed on throughout the African diaspora.”
The MIVOS QUARTET, “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” (Chicago Reader), is devoted to performing works of contemporary composers and presenting diverse new music to international audiences. Since the quartet's beginning in 2008 they have performed and closely collaborated with an ever-expanding group of international composers representing a wide aesthetic range of contemporary composition. Highlights during the 2022/23 season will include performances and residencies at Walker Art Center with Cécile McLorin Salvant and Ambrose Akinmusire, UPenn, ECLAT Festival (DE), Columbia University, Peak Performances with Mary Halvorson, and the announcement of a new album of Steve Reich string quartets.
Mivos is invested in commissioning, premiering, and growing the repertoire of new music for string quartet, striving for rich collaborations with composers over extended periods of time. Recently, Mivos has collaborated on new works with Jeffrey Mumford (LA Philharmonic/Library of Congress), Michaela Catranis (Fondation Royaumont), Chikako Morishita (rainy days festival), George Lewis (ECLAT Festival Commission), Sam Pluta (Lucerne Festival Commission), Eric Wubbels (CMA Commission), Kate Soper, Scott Wollschleger, Patrick Higgins (Zs), and poet/musician Saul Williams. For this work and the continuation of it, the quartet was the recipient of the 2019 Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Prize for Interpreters of Contemporary Music.
Beyond expanding the string quartet repertoire, Mivos is committed to working with guest artists exploring multi-media projects and performing improvised music. Mivos has worked closely with artists such as Cécile McLorin Salvant (Ogresse), Ambrose Akinmusire (Origami Harvest), Ned Rothenberg, Timucin Sahin, Nate Wooley, and most recently guitarist, composer, and 2019 MacArthur Fellow, Mary Halvorson.
Mivos has performed to critical acclaim on prestigious series such as Noon to Midnight (USA), Lucerne Festival (CH), Jazz at Lincoln Center (USA), the New York Phil Biennial (USA), Wien Modern (AT), the Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (DE), rainy days festival (LU), Asphalt Festival (DE), HellHOT! New Music Festival (Hong Kong), Shanghai New Music Week (CN), Música de Agora na Bahia (Brazil), Aldeburgh Music (UK), and Lo Spririto della musica di Venezia (IT).
In addition to their performance season, Mivos is committed to the education of young composers and string players, and is regularly the quartet in residence at the Creative Musicians Retreat at the Walden School (USA) and the Valencia International Performance Academy and Festival (ES). The quartet has conducted workshops at Columbia University, Harvard University, Boston University, UC Berkeley, US San Diego, Duke University, Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Shanghai Conservatory (China), University Malaya (Malaysia), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), the Hong Kong Art Center, and MIAM University in Istanbul (Turkey) among others. Along with their work at educational institutions, Mivos grants the Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize, a yearly award to support the work of emerging and mid-career composers residing in the USA, and the I-Creation prize, a competition for composers of Chinese descent worldwide.
The members of Mivos are violinists OLIVIA DE PRATO and MAYA BENNARDO, violist VICTOR LOWRIE TAFOYA, and cellist TYLER J. BORDEN. Mivos operates as a non-profit organization dedicated to performing, commissioning, and collaborating on music being written today.
COLE PULICE (they/them) is a saxophonist, composer, and improviser living in Oakland, California via Minneapolis, Minnesota. Recently described as “[one] of the most exciting forces in modern experimental music” (Bandcamp Daily), Cole's music explores sonic spaces both delicately beautiful and uncannily surreal, floating across the intersection of electroacoustic signal processing, improvisation, and modern composition. Cole's pair of 2022 releases, Scry and To Live & Die in Space & Time (with Lynn Avery) were called “two of 2022’s finest experimental records” by Pitchfork, who also chose to profile Cole as part of their Rising series. Cole has released music with Moon Glyph, Orange Milk, Cached Media, and Aural Canyon, and has performed with groups like Bon Iver, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Toro y Moi.
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