Trumpeter Dave Adewumi Set To Release Debut Album
Giant Step Arts continues Modern Masters and New Horizons series with debut album by trumpeter Dave Adewumi
Out March 27, 2026, THE FLAME BENEATH THE SILENCE presents rising star trumpeter Dave Adewumi in his first statement as a leader with a powerful trio of young modern masters
“Dave Adewumi is here. He plays with fearless charm and reckless rigor. His reach grows chorus by chorus.” — Jason Moran
When someone of Jason Moran’s stature within modern jazz makes a statement like this, ears should prick up. And that praise – echoed by the likes of Mary Halvorson, who says, “I was quite floored when I first heard Dave Adewumi perform, and I now count myself lucky to call him a collaborator. His strength of sound and his virtuosity, coupled with the depth and thoughtfulness of his approach, make him one of the standout voices of his generation,” and Modern Masters and New Horizons series co-curator Jason Palmer exclaiming “It takes an overwhelmingly large amount of attention, care and consistent focus in order to play trumpet decently and even more to be great at it. There are very few on earth that get to the great part, Dave being an exception, even before the age of 30!” – heralds a new star who has finally gotten the chance to be the gravitational center of his musical galaxy.
A graduate of the New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School, Adewumi became the first jazz trumpeter to receive the prestigious Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship in 2017. He went on to win 1st place at the 2019 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Competition, the 2024 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award and Gregory Morris Composing Fellowship, and in 2025 received the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship. Adewumi has been voted a “Rising Star” in the DownBeat Critics Poll.
The Flame Beneath The Silence is Adewumi’s debut as a leader, after working with Moran, Halvorson, Dave Douglas, Frank Carlberg, and others. It finds the trumpeter, born in New Hampshire to Nigerian immigrants, with three of the most important voices in modern jazz: vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Marcus Gilmore. The album was recorded live at Brooklyn’s Ornithology, an intimate and engaging showcase for Adewumi’s skills as a composer, collaborator and conceptualist.
The trumpeter recounts that the chance to record his own project came as a result of happy happenstance. “I was planning on recording and had started writing a song every day as a resolution to myself last year,” he says. Then he attended a Giant Steps Arts concert and introduced himself to co-head Jimmy Katz. At the show, another musician told Katz that Adewumi was a musician worth hearing and that, followed by further recommendations from Jason Palmer and Frank Carlberg, led to this album. “I’m extremely thankful and flattered to have had this support,” Adewumi says.
Adewumi’s connections with his partners came about in different ways. “I met Linda through Dave Douglas and I’ve been a fan of hers since I was in high school. I met Joel at a program called the International Association of Schools of Jazz where we were placed in the same ensemble. Marcus is the only one I didn’t have a formal relationship with before the session, but I was a big fan of his work. Throughout my time at New England Conservatory we would just have listening sessions and I was completely mesmerized by Marcus’s playing. The fact that he’s on this project is still something I can’t believe.”
Though still a young man, Adewumi has absorbed a remarkable array of influences, both on record and in person. Trumpet touchstones cross generations—Louis Armstrong, Donald Byrd, Don Cherry, Dave Douglas, Roy Hargrove, Ambrose Akinmusire—while direct information-sharing came via Douglas (“one of the first musicians in New York to give me guidance”); Moran (“an incredible mentor. He taught by example how to integrate ideas from different mediums into the music without losing its integrity”); Palmer (“though I never formally studied with him, he was always willing to share”); Halvorson (“one of the most important recent influences on me. She knows how to draw the most material out of a composition”); Carlberg (“an incredibly thoughtful composer with so many pathways to approach music”); and John McNeil (“He taught me basically everything I know about how to play. He passed a year ago and I’m sad he won’t be able to hear this record”).
The Flame Beneath The Silence presents as a suite of sorts, with connective sections and evocative titles like the opening title track, “Infinite Loop”, “If I Need To Do This Again I’m Going To Throw A Fit”, and closer “The Light You Left Behind.” Adewumi is as thoughtful in explaining his inspiration as he is translating those ideas into musical oration, whether meditative, celebratory, or delicate. “The album grapples with political anxiety about American authoritarianism, a crisis of meaning and a search for heroes who can show us the truth,” he explains. “The songs about creation and love exist in the same landscape as the political dread. But I think the titles create a mood more than a message.”
The title track and second piece “Is” are akin to prelude and exposition, a folksy, gritty introduction yielding to a soaring exploration initially set up by a Ross vamp. “Abandon” feels mystical, with Adewumi as a spiritual herald, with a short drum piece introducing the aforementioned “Infinite Loop”, whose classic melody could have come from a ’60s Blue Note time capsule. A threesome of pieces, the band sans Adewumi on “Pensive”, urgent lullaby “The Vine”, and the 64-second of pure abstraction channeling Eric Dolphy collaborators Booker Little and Bobby Hutcherson that is trumpet/vibraphone duet “Out Cry” set up the wondrous “If I Need To Do This Again I’m Going To Throw A Fit”. The latter is the album’s longest piece and its most wide-ranging journey. “The Light You Left Behind” begins as a lament but ends as a call to arms, closing out an impressive first statement made all the moreso for being done under the pressure of live recording. You can feel the energy of the band through your headphones. As Adewumi concludes, “There’s tension between the personal and political, the sacred and the collapsing and I want that tension to stay alive and generative.”
The Flame Beneath The Silence is the latest entry in Giant Step’s Modern Masters and New Horizons series. Curated by trumpeter Jason Palmer and Giant Step Arts, the series features artists who have helped shape the modern jazz landscape along with rising voices doing the same for the next generation.
Giant Step Arts
Founded by Jimmy and Dena Katz in January 2018, Giant Step Arts is an innovative, artist-focused non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and showcasing the work of some of modern jazz’s most innovative artists. In an era where it is increasingly difficult for musicians to earn a living, Giant Step Arts offers artists the creative and financial resources to create bold music free of commercial pressure and with total control of their artistic projects.
For the musicians it chooses to work with, by invitation only, Giant Step Arts:
• presents premiere performances
• records these performances for independent release
• provides the artists with digital downloads and CDs to sell; artists retain complete ownership of their masters
• provides the artists with photos for promotional use
• provides PR support for the recordings
Katz says: “Giant Step Arts exists to aid musicians in realizing their artistic dreams. It does not sell music and artists retain full rights to their music. We work tirelessly to raise funds with the goal of helping more musicians.”
Jimmy Katz
Through his award-winning photography with wife Dena Katz and his esteemed work as a recording engineer, Katz has spent nearly 30 years helping to shape the way audiences see and hear jazz musicians. Katz has been part of more than 600 recording projects—many historic—and has photographed more than 200 magazine covers. Whether taken in the studio, in the clubs, on the streets or in the musicians’ homes, his photographs offer intimate portraits of the artists at work and in repose and capture the collaborative and improvisatory process of jazz itself. Recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association award for jazz photography in both 2006 and 2011, Katz’s work has been exhibited in Germany, Italy and Japan. Among the world-renowned artists he has photographed are Sonny Rollins, Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, Cassandra Wilson, Ray Charles, Dave Brubeck, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, John Zorn, Pat Metheny and Dizzy Gillespie. His recording credits include such artists as David S. Ware, Joe Lovano, Harold Mabern, William Parker, Benny Golson, Chris Potter, Mark Turner, George Coleman and Jason Palmer, among others.
DAVE ADEWUMI – THE FLAME BENEATH THE SILENCE
Giant Step Arts – GSA 19 – Recorded “Live” at Ornithology on July 6th & 7th, 2024
Release date March 27, 2026
Source: Braithwaite & Katz
