Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

                            Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah 

 Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah born March 31, 1983, is an American trumpeter, composer and producer. Scott was born, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Cara Harrison and Clinton Scott  and also has a twin brother, Kiel. At the age of 13 he was given the chance to play with his uncle, jazz alto saxophonist Donald Harrison.  By 14, he was accepted into the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts where he studied jazz under the guidance of program directors, Clyde Kerr, Jr. and Kent J ordan.

Once he graduated NOCCA, Scott received a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 2004. Between 2003 and 2004, while attending Berklee,  he was member of the Berklee Monterey Quartet, and recorded as part of the Art:21 student cooperative quintet, and studied under the direction of Charlie Lewis, Dave Santoro, and Gary Burton. He majored in professional music with a concentration in film scoring.

His debut album for Concord Records, Rewind That, received a Grammy nomination.  Scott received the Edison Award in 2010 and 2012.

Since 2002, Scott has released eight studio albums, and two live recordings.

This is the hundredth anniversary of the first commercial jazz recordings, and the trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is using the opportunity to revisit some of that history. His new album, “Ruler Rebel,” which will be available for pre-order on Friday and released on March 31, is the first of what Mr. Scott is calling his “Centennial Trilogy,” designed to take stock of the present moment while highlighting how much has not changed in the past 100 years.

“A lot of what was going on when those guys were making those documents, it’s happening right here right now,” he said, referring to the 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band. “If you’re honest, it’s very hard to differentiate between what was going on then socially, and what’s going on now socially.”

                     Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah playlist


Two-time Edison Award–winning and Grammy-nominated Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah—trumpeter, composer, producer, and designer of innovative instruments and interactive media—is set to release three albums to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the very first jazz recordings of 1917. Collectively titled The Centennial Trilogy, the series is at its core a sobering re-evaluation of the social and political realities of the world through sound. It speaks to a litany of issues that continue to plague our collective experiences: slavery in America via the prison–industrial complex, food insecurity, xenophobia, immigration, climate change, sexual orientation, gender equality, fascism, and the return of the demagogue.

Heralded by JazzTimes magazine as “jazz’s young style God” and “the architect of a new commercially viable fusion,” Adjuah is the progenitor of Stretch Music, a genre-blind musical form that stretches the rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic conventions of jazz to encompass many musical forms, languages, thought processes, and cultures.

        Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert


    October 09, 2015 by PATRICK JARENWATTANANON
Artists don't usually tell long, rambling stories at the Tiny Desk, and if they do, those stories don't usually make the final cut. But this one felt different. It was about the time Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, a young black man, says he was stopped by New Orleans police late at night for no reason other than to harass and intimidate him. And how his pride almost made him do something ill-advised about it. And how he finally channeled that pent-up frustration into a piece of music whose long-form title is "Ku Klux Police Department."

"K.K.P.D." was the emotional peak of the septet's performance, though it wasn't a new tune. That's notable, because Scott stopped by the Tiny Desk on the very day his new album came out. It was played by something of a new band, though: Flutist Elena Pinderhughes, saxophonist Braxton Cook and guitarist Dominic Minix are new, younger additions to the group. It had new textures, too: Drummer Corey Fonville (another new member) used a djembe as a bass drum, and also brought a MIDI pad so he could emulate the sound of a drum machine. The effect was something like an evocation of African roots, juxtaposed with a trap beat.

The first two numbers were, in fact, from Scott's new album Stretch Music. That's his name for the particular type of jazz fusion he's up to: something more seamless than a simple collision of genre signifiers; something whose DNA is already hybridized and freely admits sonic elements which potentially "stretch" jazz's purported boundaries. (You may note that he showed up in a Joy Division sleeveless T-shirt and gold chain.) It's sleek and clearly modern, awash in guitar riffs, but also bold and emotionally naked. Scott is particularly good at getting you to feel the energy he sends pulsing through his horn, and he never shies away from going all-in on a solo. The least we could offer was to let him explain himself in doing so.

     Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah - Interview (Gent Jazz Festival 2017)


     Christian Scott - Christian aTunde Adjuah


     Stretch Music - Behind The Scenes


     Christian Scott - Stretch Music (Full Jazz Album)


Information sources:
 www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/acclaimed-musician-christian-scott-
atunde-adjuah/
 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 www.christianscott.tv/
 www.gq.com/story/christian-scott-atunde-adjuah
 www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/arts/music/christian-scott-atunde-adjuah-