Jazz trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire has a recurring theme in his music: owls. In December 2023, he released the Grammy Award-nominated Owl Song, and his latest, just released and extraordinary record, honey from a winter stone, includes a track called “Owled.” His compositions are rich and complex, but the owl thing begs further inquiry…
“Maybe 15 years ago I was somewhere in Eastern Europe, and we were going to dinner before a gig,” he recalls. “There was this man with an owl on his shoulder, but I didn’t think anything of it. We’re walking and all of a sudden the owl turned its head and looked straight in my eyes.
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“I stopped and we were just staring at each other. From that moment, I said, ‘Oh, whatever that thing is, I’m connected to it.’ From then on, I could feel the owls in nature. I’m really connected to them.”
Akinmusire built a studio in the back of his house and every once in a while an owl will perch in the tree above it as he records. However, the emotive power behind his music is anything but owl-like still. Beginning with the lead single, “muffled screams,” and ending with “s-/Kinfolks,” honey from a winter stone swells with dark, lingering notes — sometimes loud, sometimes soft — accented by improvised lyrics from fellow Grammy nominee Kokayi, who sprinkles hip-hop prowess across the project.
For Akinmusire, the album touches on the struggles he faces as a Black man in America and the resilience he has developed as a result.
“It’s about contrast,” he added. “I imagine that the stone is gray, dewy and wet, and there’s this golden, almost luminescent drop of honey on top. It’s also this idea that I’ve been exploring for a while now in my music and in my art: the middle. I’m always trying to put things that are seemingly polar opposite really close together.
“In the next few years, I’m going to be part owl and part lion. There’s an urgency building inside of me that I haven’t felt since my teenage years, maybe early 20s. I just feel like roaring.”
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