Carte Blanche à Hermon Mehari

| Jazz, compositions

Hermon Mehari has emerged in recent years as one of the prominent voices in jazz trumpet on the international scene. Winner of the Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Competition (2015), semifinalist of 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 top musicians, performing alongside Jaleel Shaw, Bobby Watson, Seamus Blake, Randy Brecker, Hubert Laws, David Linx, Tony Tixier, Sélène Saint-Aimé, and Blitz the Ambassador. As a founding member of the group Diverse, he contributed to a notable debut album, ranked in the Top 40 of the Jazzweek Radio Chart.

Based in France, Hermon Mehari has received strong recognition from the industry: Jazz Magazine distinguished him as 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 music filled with emotion, between intimate memory and sonic exploration, surrounded by Peter Schlamb, Luca Fattorini, and Gautier Garrigue, with the participation of the renowned Eritrean vocalist Faytinga.

In 2020, he continued this trajectory with A Change For the Dreamlike (MiRR), a more introspective album, written and recorded during the lockdown in the French countryside, featuring Tony Tixier, Ryan J. Lee, Kae Dilla, DeAndre Manning, Hugo LX, and several other fellow musicians.

Revealed in 2017 with Bleu, a well-received debut album featuring Aaron Parks and Logan Richardson, Hermon Mehari has since developed a demanding and vibrant music style, at the intersection of contemporary jazz, Afro-diasporic legacies, and great freedom of form.