Album Review: Ambrose Akinmusire’s ‘honey from a winter stone'

An Timely, Essential Recording From A Rising Musical Force

Since his debut in 2008 at age 26, Ambrose Akinmusire has created a sapient body of work featuring some of the most unique and sophisticated sounds in contemporary music.

His new release, “honey from a winter stone” is a dazzling kaleidoscope of jazz, hip-hop, and chamber music, as well as a commentary on the contemporary black experience.

Ambrose Akinmusire, © Michael Wilson.

Julius Eastman’s “Organic Music”

Akinmusire said, “[i]n many respects this entire work is inspired by and is an homage to the work of the composer Julius Eastman and his organic music concept.”

Eastman (1940-1990) was an American composer and iconoclast who wrote about the racism and homophobia he felt as a gay, black man with music that had provocative titles such as “Gay Guerilla” and “Evil Ni**er.”

Eastman’s prodigious talent brought him to the attention of Lukas Foss who named him a Creative Associate at UB’s Center of the Creative and Performing Arts (now the Center for 21st Century Music) where he served on of the Department of Music faculty from 1967-1975.

Eastman’s theory of “organic music” which, while generally reflecting the avant-garde minimalism of its time, included elements of jazz as well as a nascent hip-hop aesthetic. His goal was to create the ideal conditions for the spontaneous expression of music.

Sadly, Eastman’s bright star burned out as professional opportunities for an outspoken gay, black man in the world of classical music dried up. Eastman died at age 49 in Buffalo’s Millard Fillmore Hospital just a few miles from where I write these words.

Happily, his musical legacy seems to be flickering back to life thanks to musicians like Akinmusire who have drawn inspiration from Eastman’s work.

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“honey from a winter stone” employs Eastman’s technique of layering diverse sounds; Akinmusire begins with a musical palette based in jazz rather than Eastman’s minimalist serialism.