The trumpet is something of a limited instrument, at least tonally speaking. It can’t play chords and it can’t go too far down the musical scale. Maybe that’s why so many of the masters of the instrument - Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan - never recorded a solo album. Which isn’t to say one couldn’t do exactly that. Wadada Leo Smith’s released a few: Kulture Jazz, Reflections and Meditations on Monk, not to mention a few others. Joe McPhee has worked in this vein, too. Albums like As Serious As Your Life or Graphics (both for HatHut), feature him alone with a trumpet (or a sax or piano),
Ambrose Akinmusire’s new record Beauty is Enough is hard to compare with these solo trumpet records. Unlike them, Akinmusire doesn’t use a lot of effects or other instruments here. Indeed, one gets the impression it’s just him alone in a space with a lot of ambience. A cathedral, perhaps. Oh wait - it actually was.
The record goes back and forth between longer, more reflective passages and quick bursts of energy. At it’s best, Akinmusire’s playing seems steeped in the blues and has the feeling of eavesdropping on someone playing alone, late at night in a club after everyone’s left. It opens with “To: Taymoor,” one of these slow pieces where Akinmusire stretches out into long, bright notes with a lush, full tone. “Carvin.” goes for a similar effect, although here his reflective playing occasionally reaches into a high register and has an emotional, thin tone.
But throughout Beauty is Enough, Akinmusire keeps listeners from getting too complacent by alternating tempos. “2 ->1<-” has quick runs up and down his horn, while “Turns” twists and turns on itself, almost feeling like his playing is taking the form of a stock market graph.
Indeed, motion and diagrams are the two things I kept thinking of throughout this record. Beauty is Enough feels especially visual. I kept wanting to try and draw the lines he’s playing: the quick jagged ones, the ones soaring up and down, the long notes that almost fade into a drone.
By the time listeners get to the record’s back end I found myself wondering if perhaps it’s not just him and a horn, but if there’s some ghosts in that hall. The way notes hang in the air on tracks like “Off the Ledge” and “Achilles” even as Akinmusire’s playing is still going give the impression that the cathedral isn’t just echoing, but somehow playing back to him. It’s not dissimilar from the vibe Miles Davis created on “He Loved Him Madly” and how the organ somehow feels like more than just a lone instrument.
So between Akinmusire’s energy and with a nice sense of ambience, Beauty is Enough goes beyond simply a recital in a church. And since the trumpet has a limited range of sounds, one gets the sense that he’s wrestling with his instrument, trying to force it to comply with his ideas and to get them out. At its best, this LP builds up into a tense listen: “Carvin,” “Achilles,” and “Sunknees” are all engaging listens.
But at the same time, it’s also a solo trumpet record and one where it feels like he’s wrestling with ideas. I can see some finding it too out there, or lacking the same hooks as, say, Drunk or the latest Sons of Kemet record. That’s fair - I don’t think this is one for everybody.
Still, it’s a successful record, and those with open ears will find it interesting to listen to. The more curious and those who haven’t heard him play before should maybe start with his Blue Note records (I’d suggest On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment) and work their way forward to Beauty is Enough.
You can find Beauty is Enough at Bandcamp.