Christian ATunde Adjuah By Christian Scott
Edison Award winning trumpeter-composer-producer-bandleader Christian Scott releases his compelling new album, Christian aTunde Adjuah. The follow-up to his critically-acclaimed Yesterday You Said Tomorrow is an inspired and provocative two-disc, 23-track collection. With the artist s trumpet at the heart of most of the tunes, the album features reflective ballads, light and dreamy soundscapes, guitar-edged and rock-inflected cookers, trumpet ecstasies as well as clarion calls and anguished wails.
An intrepid explorer, Scott ups the ante on his new double album Christian aTunde Adjuah, continuing to delve into uncharted jazz territory. Scott s band consists of guitarist Matthew Stevens, drummer Jamire Williams, bassist Kris Funn and pianist Lawrence Fields (whose piano sound is often spiced for effect by using paper on the instrument s strings). Scott also recruited guests tenor saxophonist Kenneth Whalum III, alto saxophonist Louis Fouche IIII, and trombonist Corey King.
Christian aTunde Adjuah is arguably the most personal project to date for the young artist, reflected in the album title, Christian aTunde Adjuah– the artist s new name, and the album cover — a photo of the Scott in the traditional attire of his culture the Black Indians of New Orleans.
Scott says, The album cover is a self-portrait, a two-tiered depiction of me in the ceremonial regalia of the Afro-Native American Culture of New Orleans– colloquially known as Black Indians or Mardi Gras Indians. The photo represents the same general idea that the record does. It’s about the willingness to forge new paths and to seek new terrain while excavating one s own past as a means of gaining a better contextual understanding of that path. Scott explains, “The cover. The album. Everything represents the completion of my name. I am Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. The addition of the names aTunde and Adjuah comes from two cities in the West African nation of Benin, which is present day Ghana. It s just a way for me to tell the world that I accept all of my past and am willing to explore it. So in a sense, I haven’t changed my name. I ve completed it to reflect another part of my ancestry and lineage– the part before Scott.
A tour de force masterwork, Christian aTunde Adjuah opens a wide window on Scott s present as well as his past (especially in reaction to the jazz trads complaining about his breaking free from the jazz standard) and his auspicious creative future. In his liners, Scott writes that the listener will hear on the album a stretching of jazz, not a replacement. That is what I hope younger people will be able to take away from it as well the idea that innovation should never be regarded as a problem in artistic practice, that one should always be aware of what has come before, and finally, that criticisms shouldn t evoke paralysis, [but] should inspire action.
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Music I’m Positive You Will Enjoy,
Let’s start with some calibration statements: Miles Davis and Don Cherry are Hall of Fame five star trumpet players. Amazon and EBAY reviewers give a lot of non hall of fame products five stars too. It’s a bad tradition since we have not left any space to distinguish very good, great, and super great. I’m not going to punish this Christian Scott double CD set by going coldly logical in my review. It’s very good but not great so it gets an Amazon five star rating.
I bought this music because I ran into its reviews on Amazon and decide to give it a try not knowing anything else about Christian Scott. For the record, what people wrote was the clincher not their ratings. The first thing I did was rip the CDs to my computer’s music stash then gave a listen. Good stuff. I’m going to call the style mostly world music, not soft jazz as many other reviewers have. In fact there are many hints of Don Cherry when he’s fooling around with Ed Blackwell. That’s very high praise from me!
There’s enough variety in this two CD set to convince me that Scott is not a one trick pony, an awful epithet to hang on a jazz man. (Consider drummer Ginger Baker for example, a world music sort when he’s trying his hand at jazz. I like him but he’s dreadfully repetitive.) There is also a hint of creativity in addition to variety so my interest was held throughout the 23 tracks. I’m sure that I will spend time relistening to some pretty terrific music.
I recommend the CDs to you. If you are more interested in modern than (semi-)classical jazz you will like it even more than I do and I really like it.
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|Christian aTunde Adjuah,
Christian Scott continues to compose and perform music far beyond his years and this cd is no exception. When I first heard his cd “rewind that” I was hooked. This double cd is a treat, there is not a bad cut on it. You could listen to this cd over and over again and still find something remarkable in it. The state of jazz, true jazz not that smoooooooth jazz is in great hands with young lions like Mr. Scott.
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|Blown Away,
My goodness, Christian Scott has simply taken my breath away. What he brings to music is nothing short of a miracle. I love the magical bends and “stretches” he lends to the jazz genre and music as a whole for that matter. What I get when listening to Scott is innovation at its finest. Looking forward to hearing more from this great artist.
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