Trumpeter Dave Adewumi Debuts as Leader with “The Flame Beneath The Silence”

Giant Step Arts continues its Modern Masters and New Horizons series with the debut album by rising star trumpeter Dave Adewumi. The Flame Beneath The Silence, out March 27, 2026, presents Adewumi in his first statement as a leader, supported by a powerful trio of modern jazz masters: vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Marcus Gilmore.

Praised by Jason Moran, who says, “Dave Adewumi is here. He plays with fearless charm and reckless rigor. His reach grows chorus by chorus,” and by Mary Halvorson as “one of the standout voices of his generation,” Adewumi has already captured the attention of the jazz world well before his 30th birthday.

A graduate of the New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School, Adewumi was the first jazz trumpeter awarded the prestigious Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship in 2017. His accolades include first place at the 2019 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Competition, the 2024 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award and Gregory Morris Composing Fellowship, and the 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship. He has been recognized as a “Rising Star” in the DownBeat Critics Poll.

Recorded live at Brooklyn’s Ornithology, the album showcases Adewumi’s skills as composer, conceptualist, and collaborator. Tracks flow like a suite, with evocative titles including the opening The Flame Beneath The Silence, Infinite Loop, If I Need To Do This Again I’m Going To Throw A Fit, and the closing The Light You Left Behind. Adewumi balances meditative, celebratory, and politically conscious themes, blending the personal with the societal while maintaining a lively, generative tension throughout the album.

Influences span generations, from Louis Armstrong, Donald Byrd, and Don Cherry to Dave Douglas, Ambrose Akinmusire, and mentors such as Moran, Jason Palmer, Mary Halvorson, Frank Carlberg, and the late John McNeil. Adewumi’s compositions channel these lessons into a cohesive, expressive statement, amplified by the virtuosic contributions of Ross, Han Oh, and Gilmore.

The Flame Beneath The Silence marks a powerful debut in Adewumi’s career, heralding a new voice in modern jazz while cementing his place among both rising and established leaders in the genre.