Ambrose Akinmusire to release new album from Blue Note Records

USC Thornton Jazz Studies alum Ambrose Akinmusire (MM ’07) releases his sixth album, on the tender spot of every calloused moment, on Friday, June 12 from Blue Note Records. The album’s 11 new original compositions are met with warm reviews from NPR Music and PostGenre.

In a recent preview, NPR Music traces the album and Akinmusire’s sound from his first experience hearing avant-garde jazz to the present-day influences that shaped the album, writing: “As with Akinmusire’s previous releases on Blue Note, on the tender spot of every calloused moment also invokes the persistence, pride and alienation in the contemporary African-American experience.”

PostGenre reflects on the album’s place in the history of contemporary blues, writing: “Few works better express the blues of the contemporary era than Ambrose Akinmusire’s on the tender spot of every calloused moment.”