Chief Adjuah

Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah [formerly Christian Scott] is a two-time Edison Award-winning, six-time Grammy Award-nominated, Doris Duke Award in the Arts Award-winner. He is a sonic architect, trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and designer of innovative technologies and musical instruments (including The Stretch Music app, Adjuah Trumpet, Siren, Sirenette, Chief Adjuah’s Bow and Chief Adjuah’s N’Goni). He is the founder and CEO of the Stretch Music App and Recording Company. Chieftain and OBA of the Xodokan Nation, Chief Adjuah is the grandson of Louisiana luminary and legend, the late Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr., and Grand Griot of New Orleans and Guardians Institute founder, Herreast Harrison. He is also the nephew of Jazz innovator and NEA Jazz Master saxophonist-composer, Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. Adjuah (and his twin brother Kiel Adrian Scott) joined his grandfather’s Guardians of the Flame banner in 1989 at the age 5.

Since 2001, Adjuah has released thirteen critically acclaimed studio recordings, four live albums, and one greatest hits collection. He is widely recognized as the progenitor of the “Stretch Music,” style. A 21st-century approach that asserts genre blindness and an ethnomusicological approach to limitless fusion that heralded NPR to hail him as “Ushering in a new era of Jazz" and JazzTimes Magazine to mark him as "Jazz's young style God." and “the architect of a commercially viable fusion”. He has collaborated with a number of notable artists, including Prince, Thom Yorke, Flea, Common, Thundercat, Marcus Miller, Ron Carter, Eddie Palmieri, McCoy Tyner, Allen Toussaint, Stefon Harris, David Sanchez, Poncho Sanchez, Robert Glasper, rappers Mos Def (Yasin Bey), Talib Kweli, A$AP Ferg, Wiki, Your Old Droog, Boogie, as well as heralded poet and musician Saul Williams. Adjuah scores music for his identical twin brother, writer/director, and visual artist Kiel Adrian Scott’s filmic works. Scott is a Directors Guild of America Award recipient whose works have been honored with The Peabody Award and an NAACP Image Award.

Recent accolades, films and projects for Adjuah include, PBS’ American Masters, short film "The New Chief,” JAZZFM's Innovator/Innovation of the Year Award, Jazz Journalist Association Trumpeter of the Year Award, The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, The Paul Ackett Award, Echo: Deutscher Musikpreis, a host of Downbeat Magazine’s Critics and Readers Poll's wins for Best Composer, Best Trumpet, and Best Electric Jazz-Rock Contemporary Group. Multiple Grammy Nominations for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Best Contemporary Jazz Album, and Best Improvised Jazz Solo. In 2017 Adjuah starred in GAP’s Skate Meet Horn campaign.  The following year, 2018, saw him leading 1800 Tequila & Billboard Present: The Refined Players. Adjuah made a cameo appearance in Bill and Ted Face the Music, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, where he plays a member of The Future Council and contributed the music for Louis Armstrong's character. The Chief is also featured in film and sound in the romantic drama, The Photograph, starring Issa Rae. He was inducted into the inaugural constituency of the Black Genius Brain Trust, received the Changing Worlds Peacemaker Award, The Doris Duke Award in the Arts as well as becoming the face of the First-ever BMW XM, starring in BMW’s #fortheXminded campaign of commercials commemorating the release of the new vehicle for 2023.

Dedicated to a number of causes that positively impact communities, Adjuah gives his time and talents in service to several organizations which garnered him a place in Ebony Magazine’s 30 Young Leaders Under 30 nearly a decade ago. He has supported, through his time and talent, Each One Save One, NO/AIDS Task Force, Girls First, The Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame, Good Work Network, Black Lives Matter, Changing Worlds, Acres of Ancestry Initiative and numerous other community service organizations. Holding master classes, creating and participating in discussion panels, creating content, and purchasing instruments for youth music programs and individual youth musicians are all part of Adjuah’s community-based work. He has worked with Guardians Institute, in New Orleans’ 9th Ward, which is dedicated to reading and fiscal literacy, cultural retention, and a firm commitment to the participation of community elders and artists in uplifting and supporting youths in underserved areas of New Orleans. Adjuah also currently sits on the Board of The NOCCA Institute. Since Adjuah’s emergence, he has been a passionate and vocal proponent of human rights and an unflinching critic of injustices throughout the world.

NOMINATED FOR BEST CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM & BEST IMPROVISED JAZZ SOLO AT THE 63RD GRAMMY AWARDS!

‘Axioms are essentially postulates from which an abstractly defined structure is based, a statement or proposition which is regarded as self-evidently true…Axioms serve as starting points for further reasoning and arguments. It’s difficult to find a more appropriate correlative to Jazz and Expansive Music..  Stretch Music, especially in a Live setting.’ (Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah)

March 10th, 2020 was five short months that seem a lifetime ago. Chief Adjuah and his band were in a familiar place during an unfamiliar circumstance - New York City’s famed Blue Note as Covid19 uncertainty gripped the world. The chief, determined to stay the course and cognizant of risks, made the decision to press on and play.  Much of Adjuah’s music thematically orbits ideas of the enduring power and courage of the individual and collective spirits. He, nor his septet would depart the venue without leaving as much strength and energy to the people as they could. Little did they (or we) know, this would be the last show for some time. Capturing this moment was precious; even more so now in the wake of the devastation of current events.

‘There’s a difference between hearing and listening. The intention to understand is present in listening. When you listen to our band, what you are hearing is the sound of listening’ (Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah)

Heralded by NPR as ushering in “a new era in jazz,” Chief Adjuah continues to expand on the trailblazing pace he has set since 2006 with his Grammy Nominated debut Rewind That JazzTimes Magazine proclaims him as "The architect of a new commercially viable fusion" and "Jazz's young style God.” Since 2015, Chief Adjuah has released five critically lauded studio albums to add to his previous highly lauded works. Stretch Music the inaugural recording of his’s vision of genre blindness in sound. Ruler Rebel, Diaspora, and The Emancipation Procrastination [collectively The Centennial Trilogy] a three-album series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first jazz recordings. The trio of recordings, released in 2017 and 2018, are sonic explorations rooted in a sobering re-evaluation of the world’s social and political realities and their correlatives a century earlier. And 2019's Ancestral Recall his latest document, which highlights the sounds of his ancestral history and coronation as Chieftain and Idi of the Xodokan Nation of New Orleans Black Masking Nations regionally referred to as Black Indians. Ancestral Recall was said to be “A Listening Revolution” by Exclaim Magazine. The document, in its inception, was designed as a map to de-colonialize sound; to challenge previously held misconceptions about some cultures of music; to codify a new folkloric tradition and begin the work of creating a national set of rhythms, rooted in the synergy between West African, Native American, African Diaspora/Caribbean rhythms and their marriage to rhythmic templates found in trap music, alt-rock, and other modern forms. Both The Emancipation Procrastination and Ancestral Recall were nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the 61st and 62nd Grammy Awards marking Adjuah's third nomination. The recordings also garnered the chief a Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star Composer, Rising Star Trumpet, Trumpeter, and Electric/Jazz-Rock/Contemporary Group/Artist wins from the publication. Stereogum named The Centennial Trilogy Best Jazz Album of the 2010’s. So far in 2020, Chief Adjuah was announced as the Jazz Journalist Association’s Trumpeter of the Year as well as recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. Additionally, the Stretch Music recording was accompanied by a groundbreaking app by the same name and for which Adjuah won JAZZFM’s 2015 Innovator/Innovation of the Year honor. The chief also recently starred in Billboard and 1800 Tequila’s Refined Players Series and is the subject of PBS American Masters' Masters in the Making set for release this year.

In recognition of his musical contributions Adjuah will also be featured in Bill & Ted Face the Music playing a Noble of the Future Council, leaders of a world saved by music. He also contributes his Trumpet sound to Louis Armstrong’s character throughout the Motion Picture which is set for release on the August 28th as well.

AXIOM is Chief Adjuah’s latest live recording and third live album. The previous two being Live at Newport released in 2008 and Ninety Miles Live at Cubadisco (with Stefon Harris and David Sanchez) in 2011. Five studio albums followed the latter, as Adjuah found full independent freedom in his collaboration with Ropeadope and the creation of his Stretch Music label. AXIOM is a blistering set showcasing his Stretch Music group concept. The riveting live recording is rooted in the intellection of listening as the primary conduit for understanding and narrative in sound, pointedly contrasting the energy and sound design of his studio albums. The document features flautist Elena Pinderhughes, Grammy nominated saxophonist Alex Han, djebefola Weedie Braimah, pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Kris Funn and drummer Corey Fonville. 

NOMINATED FOR BEST CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM AT THE 62ND GRAMMY AWARDS!

“All forms of expression in sound are valid, as all people are… this is the mantra of Ancestral Recall.”

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah sets the tone for his new project - Ancestral Recall - with this powerful statement. In his mission to unify cultural voices and tear down the sonic and social constructs that separate based on race, class, and culture, Adjuah asserts music has historically been disseminated to people with harmony and melody prioritized over rhythm. The value distinction leads to harmful hierarchal sentiments and perpetuates the view that cultures who prioritize harmony and melody are more nuanced and sophisticated than those who prioritize rhythm. It is an inaccurate portrayal. 

Ancestral Recall looks to excavate and update hidden histories in sound by displaying a sonic tapestry that illuminates the har-melodic movements found within rhythm, rendering previous contexts baseless, Adjuah explains: "In its inception, Ancestral Recall was built as a map to de-colonialize sound; to challenge previously held misconceptions about some cultures of music; to codify a new folkloric tradition and begin the work of creating a national set of rhythms; rhythms rooted in the synergy between West African, First Nation, African Diaspora/Caribbean rhythms and their marriage to rhythmic templates found in trap music, alt-rock, and other modern forms. It is time we created a sound that dispels singular narratives of entire peoples and looks to finally represent the wealth of narratives found throughout the American experience. One that shows that all forms of expression in sound are valid, as all people are." The goal is to connect people in one understanding rather than dividing them by definition.

The music of Ancestral Recall focuses the mind. As the ear adjusts to the shifting tapestries of rhythm, Adjuah stands firm in the mix, heralding the histories of rhythm and song. Walking hand-in-hand with listeners through his and their musical histories, clearing the way for a new reading of what all musical futures can become. Ancestral Recall is an album that might easily be misunderstood in its own time, but will certainly be seen as a moment in history that marked a momentous shift in musical and perhaps social understanding.  

The Centennial Trilogy

Beginning 100 years after the first jazz recording, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah announced The Centennial Trilogy : three full length albums that reflect deeply on the history of Jazz. In his words, Christian was ‘trying to create a document that fully acculturated all of the things that grew from the first century of jazz…. To force all of those things into one context as a means of creating a newer, larger context for artists to be able to grow from’

The scope of the trilogy is not limited to the music; Christian is using broad strokes to present his vision of the world. Growing up in the upper ninth ward he witnessed people enduring the same challenges regardless of their race or ethic background. Undereducated to serve the tourist culture, facing food insecurity and viewing each other as different because of the lens of race. He understood that race was and is a social construct, and saw that people could be working together to build and move forward.

Christian’s use of the term Stretch Music, which is an album title as well as the name of his newly formed record label, goes well beyond the music. It springs from his childhood realization that music can be a tool to obliterate this notion – that by creating music that blends genres he can inspire people to blend in every way. If one visualizes musicians of different genres, it is easy to see how music has been disseminated to us as hyper racialized, a by product of cultural expression. The goal of the artist is, in every way and every calculated move, driven by this understanding and a desire to create a space that advances the notion that we all belong together. It is never I, it is always WE. 

Ruler Rebel presented to us the artist – WHO we are listening to. 

Diaspora identified the listener – ALL the people of the world. 

The Emancipation Procrastination, the third and final chapter in the trilogy, deals directly with the social and political issues of the day. Rather than descend into identity politics, Adjuah sees in New Orleans many disparate cultures in one space being underserved and exploited. His worldview is not just New Orleans, as he has traveled and toured the world for almost 20 years, starting as a child in some of the most revered jazz groups of the day (McCoy Tyner, Donald Harrison, Eddie Palmieri..).

“‘I’m not interested in harming anyone. I have a responsibility as an artist to create a space where people feel welcome. When I walk outside this hotel room, that is not the reality. There is a difference when music is made with love. When people come into my space they are going to feel that. We are trying to figure out a way to treat each other better. We are all responsible for healing each other.‘”

The vision of Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is clear – that this is an opportunity for all of US to come together and address issues that affect ALL of us. Emancipation Procrastination means that we all have an opportunity to liberate ourselves from old world ideas. Let the healing begin.