Ambrose Akinmusire

It’s never a random act when trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire puts together a band. His new all-star ensemble includes downtown guitar pioneer Bill Frisell and the grooving New Orleans drummer Herlin Riley, presenting the world premiere of new music written specifically for this powerful ensemble he calls “Owl Song.”

The members of this scintillating new project typically move in different circles. But Akinmusire could care less about that. He creates his own circles of sound. That’s what he is about: always reaching for some new horizon, building an organic vision that can draw on straight-ahead jazz, the avant-garde, classical chamber music, or hip-hop. Over the years, Akinmusire’s collaborators have ranged from rapper Kendrick Lamar (he is featured on To Pimp a Butterfly) to San Francisco Symphony violinist Helen Kim (for whom he recently composed a solo work). His broad expressive palette will be showcased tonight as he paints new musical pictures with his genre-defying ensemble. Expect beauty and many surprises: The sound of his trumpet is “elusive… ruby-red and urgent,” says The New York Times. “More than almost any other contemporary improviser, Mr. Akinmusire has invented a way of composing that’s unfixed from jazz’s stickiest conventions.”