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Jazz trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire has a recurring theme<\/strong> in his music: owls. In December 2023, he released the Grammy Award-nominated Owl Song, <\/em>and his latest, just released and extraordinary record, honey from a winter stone<\/em>, includes a track called \u201cOwled.\u201d His compositions are rich and complex, but the owl thing begs further inquiry\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe 15 years ago I was somewhere in Eastern Europe, and we were going to dinner before a gig,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThere was this man with an owl on his shoulder, but I didn\u2019t think anything of it. We\u2019re walking and all of a sudden the owl turned its head and looked straight in my eyes.<\/p>\n More from Spin:<\/p>\n \u201cI stopped and we were just staring at each other. From that moment, I said, \u2018Oh, whatever that thing is, I\u2019m connected to it.\u2019 From then on, I could feel the owls in nature. I\u2019m really connected to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Akinmusire built a studio in the back of his house and every once in a while an owl will perch in the tree above it as he records. However, the emotive power behind his music is anything but owl-like still. Beginning with the lead single, \u201cmuffled screams,\u201d and ending with \u201cs-\/Kinfolks,\u201d honey from a winter stone<\/a><\/em> swells with dark, lingering notes \u2014 sometimes loud, sometimes soft \u2014 accented by improvised lyrics from fellow Grammy nominee Kokayi, who sprinkles hip-hop prowess across the project.<\/p>\n For Akinmusire, the album touches on the struggles he faces as a Black man in America and the resilience he has developed as a result.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about contrast,\u201d he added. \u201cI imagine that the stone is gray, dewy and wet, and there\u2019s this golden, almost luminescent drop of honey on top. It\u2019s also this idea that I\u2019ve been exploring for a while now in my music and in my art: the middle. I\u2019m always trying to put things that are seemingly polar opposite really close together.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the next few years, I\u2019m going to be part owl and part lion. There\u2019s an urgency building inside of me that I haven\u2019t felt since my teenage years, maybe early 20s. I just feel like roaring.\u201d<\/p>\n