Carte blanche à Hermon Mehari

| Jazz, compositions

Hermon Mehari has established himself in recent years as one of the leading voices of jazz trumpet on the international scene. Winner of the Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Competition (2015) and semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition (2014), he now leads an active career between Europe and the United States, both as a leader and a sideman.
Originally from Kansas City, he has built a solid reputation among leading musicians, performing alongside Jaleel Shaw, Bobby Watson, Seamus Blake, Randy Brecker, Hubert Laws, David Linx, Tony Tixier, Sélène Saint-Aimé and Blitz the Ambassador, among others. A founding member of the group Diverse, he contributed to their acclaimed debut album, which ranked in the Top 40 of the Jazzweek Radio Chart.
Based in France, Hermon Mehari has received strong recognition from the profession: Jazz Magazine named him Foreign Artist of the Year (2022), Group of the Year with No(w) Beauty (2023), and then Trumpeter of the Year (2024).
His discography as a leader reflects a unique, open and deeply personal universe. With Asmara (Komos), he explores his Eritrean origins through a repertoire inspired by the harmonies, rhythms and melodies of Eritrea, in a haunting music, between intimate memory and sound research, surrounded by Peter Schlamb, Luca Fattorini and Gautier Garrigue, with the participation of the great Eritrean voice Faytinga.
In 2020, he continued on this path with A Change For the Dreamlike (MiRR), a more introspective album written and recorded during lockdown in the French countryside, with Tony Tixier, Ryan J. Lee, Kae Dilla, DeAndre Manning, Hugo LX and several other fellow musicians.
Discovered in 2017 by Bleu, a highly acclaimed debut album featuring Aaron Parks and Logan Richardson, Hermon Mehari has since developed a demanding and lively style of music, at the crossroads of contemporary jazz, Afro-diasporic heritage and great freedom of form.

Hermon Mehrari: trumpet
Rob Clearfield: piano