art in abundance
strong notes An award-winning musician and communityloving curator trumpets Durham’s arts scene
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B Y L E A H B E RRY P HOTO B Y J O H N M IC HAE L SIMP SO N
l Strong has a distinct
sound – one you can frequently hear around town, whether he’s performing at a jazz brunch at Alley Twenty Six or up on The Roof at The Durham Hotel. The trumpeter
Al plans to release new music in the fall – he says it’ll be a fusion of musical styles, from R&B to Afrobeat and beyond. “I’m just really excited about bringing all of these worlds that I often find myself in as a freelancer together into my solo artistry,” he says.
possesses a creative knack in reimagining existing works and a unique ability to work a crowd in the local scene. But he’s also a champion of the arts community, bringing local talent to the forefront through his work. Al hails from a military family who bounced around from state to state early in his youth, though he spent most of his childhood in Washington, D.C. Much of Al’s appreciation for music can be attributed to his grandmother, Ruby Mae Strong, who shared in raising him early on. She played the organ and often hosted home church services with her sisters and other “Black church mothers,” Al says. “If there wasn’t music being played by her in the house, I would occasionally tinker around with the organ. I’d open up some of the piano books and teach myself the five finger positions of the major scale.” At 10 years old, Al fatefully selected the trumpet as his instrument in band at school. “Possibly because of my awareness of the trumpet great Louis Armstrong and how our last names resembled each other,” Al says. “I guess I just somehow developed an affinity for 66
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trumpet.” He played in marching band and soon joined the concert band. “Aside from loving music, I loved the camaraderie and competitive nature of being in music situations,” he explains. He later attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in D.C., honing his craft. He was playing in his school’s jazz band at a European festival when Ira Wiggins, the director of jazz studies at North Carolina Central University, recruited him. Al earned a bachelor’s in jazz studies and jazz performance at NCCU and was recruited again, this time by Northern Illinois University, to pursue his master’s. He lived in Chicago for a few years, but came back to Durham in 2009 to teach trumpet as an adjunct professor at his alma mater, a role he still holds 15 years