In the organizer's words:

Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet

The Californian trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, born in Oakland in 1982, presents his new album "Owl Song", the first of a planned album trilogy with different instrumentations and production approaches. In this project, Akinmusire's focus is on a chamber music approach, for which he has chosen a deliberate reduction in order to improvise within given boundaries. Akinmusire was discovered by saxophonist Steve Coleman, who brought him into his band Five Elements for a tour at the age of 19. He attended the Thelonious Monk Institute and was encouraged by Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. In 2007, he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and was signed by Blue Note Records in 2010. In 2015, he played on Kendrick Lamar's album "To Pimp A Butterfly" and released his albums "Origami Harvest" and "On The Tender Spot Of Every Calloused Moment" to coincide with the Black Lives Matter protests in the USA. He is currently the artistic director of the "Herbie Hancock Institute Of Jazz".

Ambrose Akinmusire - trp
Sam Harris - p
Harish Raghavan - b
Justin Brown - dr

Samora Pinderhughes & EOS Chamber Orchestra

Samora Pinderhughes belongs to a young generation of singer/songwriters in the USA. His songs are multi-stylistic and aesthetically diverse, combining jazz elements with pop, rock and folk. His lyrics sound poetic and radical at the same time, they often speak of the need for change and address social grievances. The focus is on his clear, rather high voice, which has a timbre that is both sharply accentuated and overcast and allows for a wide range of emotional expression. While he enjoys working with young jazz musicians - such as his flute-playing sister Elena or alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins - he will be accompanied by the EOS Chamber Orchestra at Cologne Jazzweek. Hendrika Entzian, who has shared the direction of this ensemble with Susanne Blumenthal since this year, aims to give Pinderhughes' already emotionally charged songs even greater depth with her arrangements in order to make them more accessible and catchy for the audience.

Samora Pinderhughes - voc/p/key
Elliott Skinner - voc/gtr
Joshua Crumbly - eb

Susanne Blumenthal - cond
Hendrika Entzian - arr
Carolin Pook - viol
Ségolène de Beaufond - viol
Katharina Vogt - viol
Terese Pletkute - viol
Volha Hanchar - viol
Maja Kwiatkowska - viol
Eva Csizmadia - viol
Demian Agne - viol
Pauline Buss - viola
Lydia Haurenherm - viola
Simon Martin Pühn - viola
Mateusz Kwiatkowski - cel
Elio Herrera - cel
Carlota Ramos - b
Roland Meschede - fl
Anja Schmiel - ob
Kristof Dömötör - cl
Eugenie Ricard - bs
Susanne Knoop - trp
Vsevolod Mititello - hr

More info on jazzweek.de