Trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire returns with the release of the imagined savior is far easier to paint, an impressive and expansive new album that broadens the palette of his quintet with the addition of guitarist Charles Altura, the OSSO String Quartet, and vocalists Becca Stevens, Theo Bleckmann, and Cold Specks. Akinmusire’s quintet features saxophonist Walter Smith III, pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown—a close-knit group of longtime friends and frequent collaborators that breathes a remarkable collective identity.
NPR Music recently featured the imagined savior is far easier to paint in their “Under-The-Radar Albums Preview For 2014” including a track premiere of “Our Basement (ed)” featuring Becca Stevens on vocals. Critic Ann Powers wrote that Ambrose “wowed jazz fans with the focused intelligence of his 2011 Blue Note Records debut. For this new effort, he goes wide, expanding his ensemble to include vocalists, a string quartet, and the adventurous guitarist Charles Altura. This music is not for chickens — it's heady, intense, and demanding. But it's also accessible in the most important ways, making room the listener to get lost in its byways.”
Review:
After the stunning modern jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire delivered on
the acclaimed When the Heart Emerges Glistening in 2011, he plays it anything
but safe on The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint. With his working
quintet – tenor saxophonist Walter Smith, drummer Justin Brown, bassist
Harish Raghavan, and pianist Sam Harris – he expands the frame to include
guitarist Charles Altura in a sextet or alternating with Smith. In addition,
vocalists Becca Stevens, Cold Specks, and Theo Bleckman (all of whom contribute
lyrics) appear, as do the Osso String Quartet and flutist Elena Penderhughes.
Akinmusire self-produced this set and showcases a diverse range of carefully
scripted, genre-blurring compositions – modern classical, vanguard pop,
spoken word – in addition to jazz. Opener “Marie Christie” is a piano and
trumpet duet where Akinmusire evokes a moody lyric before engaging in a flurry
of improvisation. “As We Fight (Willie Penrose)” unfolds gradually. Altura,
Smith, and Akinmusire unwind the labyrinthine lyric before a martial snare and
undulating bassline quicken the pace as keys and dynamics shift before a series
of brief solos. “Vartha” is the most joyous tune here. Initiated by
Altura's minor-key minimalist pulse and Raghavan's fluid bassline, it evolves
along a linear chromatic line with pianistic embellishments and Akinmusire
playing in an uncharacteristic warm, fat tone. “Our Basement (Ed),” written
by Stevens, places her in the context of the string quartet's pulsing rhythm
and more expressionistic suggestions by the trumpeter, Harris, and Brown. Her
provocative phrasing eerily slips between the cracks of arty pop, early
Americana, classical music, and vanguard jazz. “The Beauty of Dissolving
Portraits” features the trumpeter soloing lyrically with a flute amid a nearly
static drone by bass and string quartet. “Asiam (Joan),” inspired by Joni
Mitchell, features Bleckman's gorgeous singing appended by his overdubbed
trademark vocal effects and harmonies, as he weaves them inside an emotive
harmonic frame by the quintet. “Bubbles (John William Sublett)” is deeply
rhythmic, knotty post-bop with a killer Raghavan solo. “Ceaseless
Inexhaustible Child (Cyntoia Brown)” features Cold Specks' gloomy soul vocal
as the voice of its subject (a young woman imprisoned for life at the age of
16). She sings above a near-gospel melody ringed with processional piano, bluesy
guitar, and Akinmusire's wailing, soaring, near-joyous trumpet as a
contrasting second voice. “Recall for Those Absent” (a roll call of the
names of young black men killed by police and read by a child) gives way to the
free quintet interaction of “J.E. Nilmah (Ecclesiastes 6:10),” appended by a
chamber piece, “Inflatedbyspinning,” for flute, bass, and string quartet
The 16-minute live closer, “Richard (Conduit),” is kinetic, spiraling jazz.
It crosses modal, free, and post-bop terrains and everyone gets ample room to
solo. The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint is provocative: its moodiness,
myriad musical directions, and 79-minute length may be initially off-putting.
What is revealed with repeated listening, however, is that this
set's achievement is commensurate with its ambition.
All Music Guide – Thom Jurek