Described by NPR Music as “a trumpeter of deep expressive resources and a composer of kaleidoscopic vision,” composer, trumpeter, and bandleader 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.  Akinmusire returns to Harlem Stage during its 40th Anniversary Season to present banyan seed. He builds on his interest in the intersection of the griot, mentor, and oral historian in social history to develop a multi-part suite. Like the banyan tree, which starts as a plant growing on another plant to become a tree of far-flung roots and interwoven vines, the project incorporates interviews with jazz elders to share ideas, knowledge, history, and community with younger musicians, and to connect audiences to the living stories of jazz - its social innovation and endless creativity.

Joining Akinmusire on stage is Cosmo Lieberman (alto saxophone), Emmanuel Michael (guitar), Estaban Castro (piano), Jeremiah Edwards (bass), and Timothy Angulo (drums).

Commissioned by Harlem Stage through its WaterWorks Established Artists Program and supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Thompson Family Foundation, and the Leonard & Robert Weintraub Family Fund.

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