Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah
|
|
|---|---|
Adjuah live in 2016 at Leverkusener Jazztage
|
|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Chief Adjuah, aTunde Adjuah, X. Adjuah, Xian Adjuah |
| Born | March 31, 1983 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Genres |
|
| Occupation(s) |
|
| Instruments |
|
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels |
|
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (born March 31, 1983), also known as Chief Adjuah, is an amazing American musician. He plays the trumpet and many other instruments. He is also a talented composer who writes music and a producer who helps create albums.
Chief Adjuah has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, which are big awards in music. He has also won two Edison Awards. He was named Innovator of the Year by Jazz FM and Trumpeter of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. He has received other important awards too, like the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts and the Doris Duke Performing Arts Award. He is the nephew of famous jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr.. Chief Adjuah is also a leader in his community, serving as the Chieftain of the Xodokan Nation of Maroons and the Grand Griot (a storyteller and historian) of New Orleans.
Contents
Early Life and Musical Start
Chief Adjuah was born on March 31, 1983, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has an identical twin brother named Kiel Adrian Scott. Chief Adjuah started learning jazz music when he was 12 years old. His uncle, jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., taught him.
He went to the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) for high school. There, he studied jazz with great teachers like Clyde Kerr, Jr. and Kent Jordan. By age 16, he joined his uncle's band and played on their albums. He finished high school at NOCCA in 2001.
Music Career Highlights
Starting Out and First Albums
After high school, Chief Adjuah received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He studied music and film scoring there, graduating in 2004. While still a student, he started his own record label, Impromp2 Records. He released his first album, Christian Scott, in 2002.
In 2005, he signed with Concord Music. His first album with Concord, Rewind That (released in 2006), was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2007, he released Anthem, and in 2008, Live at Newport. This live album was praised by NPR, a public radio station, for bringing in a "New Era of Jazz."
Developing "Stretch Music"
In 2010, Chief Adjuah released Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, which won an Edison Award. This album also introduced his unique "Stretch Music" idea. Stretch Music mixes different styles like Southern hip-hop (called Trap Music), traditional West African drumming, and New Orleans Afro-Native American sounds. He created this style to expand what jazz music could be.
Around this time, he also toured with Atoms for Peace, a supergroup that included Radiohead's Thom York and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. He also formed a group called Ninety Miles and recorded music in Havana, Cuba, with Cuban musicians. This led to the 2010 album Ninety Miles Project and a documentary.
In 2012, he released a double album called Christian aTunde Adjuah. This album was called a "courageous and ambitious experiment" and earned him his second Edison Award.
Later Albums and Grammy Nominations
In 2014, Chief Adjuah started his own record label, Stretch Music. His 2015 album, Stretch Music, was the first release on this label.
In 2017, he released three albums together, called The Centennial Trilogy. These albums celebrated 100 years since the first jazz recordings. The albums were Ruler Rebel, Diaspora, and The Emancipation Procrastination. The Emancipation Procrastination was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2018.
His 2019 album, Ancestral Recall, also received a Grammy nomination. In 2020, he released Axiom, which was recorded live at the famous Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. Axiom also earned a Grammy nomination. He also received two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Solo Performance in 2020 and 2021.
Recent Work and Awards
In 2021, Chief Adjuah formed a new group called Chief Adjuah & the Sound Carved from Legend. In 2022, he was featured in an advertising campaign for BMW. In 2023, he won the prestigious Doris Duke Foundation's Doris Duke Artist Award.
His album Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning was released in June 2023. This album is special because Chief Adjuah does not play the trumpet on it. Instead, he uses instruments he designed himself. This album connects to the history of Black Indian recordings and shows how he continues to evolve his sound.
Designing New Instruments
Chief Adjuah has designed his own special brass instruments. These instruments are made by Adams Musical Instruments. He once said he designed them because he didn't like the sound of a regular trumpet! His custom trumpet has a bell that tilts upward at a 22-degree angle. This is similar to trumpets played by Dizzy Gillespie, but with a different angle.
He also designed the Reverse Flugel, which Adams Musical Instruments sells as the Adjuah Trumpet. It is an "inverted flugelhorn" that can play higher notes. He also created the Siren, which is a mix of a trumpet and a cornet, and a smaller version called the Sirenette.
Chief Adjuah also developed a double-sided electric harp called an "Adjuah bow." This instrument combines features from two traditional West African instruments: the Ngoni and the Kora.
Personal Life and Heritage
Family and Cultural Roots
Chief Adjuah's family comes from the Maroon culture and the Mardi Gras Indian tradition of New Orleans. He prefers to call them "Afro New Orleanian" or "Black Indian." His grandfather, Donald Harrison Sr., was a leader of several Mardi Gras Indian tribes. His uncle, Donald Harrison Jr., is also a Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation.
Chief Adjuah and his twin brother started participating in their grandfather's Guardians of the Flame tribe when they were young. Today, Chief Adjuah is the Chieftain of the Xodokan Nation of Maroons. In 2023, he was named Grand Griot of New Orleans, a special honor for a community historian and storyteller.
Name Change
Chief Adjuah was born Christian Andre Scott. In 2012, he started performing as Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. He did this to honor his family's West African and Indigenous heritage. "aTunde" and "Adjuah" are names of ancient cities in what is now Ghana. He explained that he wanted his name to better show his identity and background. In 2023, he legally changed his name to Xian aTunde Adjuah and now performs as Chief Adjuah.
Film and Television Appearances
Chief Adjuah has been involved in several films and TV shows:
- 2010: Passion Play (musician)
- 2016: Articulate (subject of the show)
- 2016: Samaria (executive producer, orchestration, trumpeter)
- 2020: The Photograph (trumpeter)
- 2020: American Masters In the Making: "Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah: The New Chief" (subject of the show)
Discography
As leader
- 2002: Christian Scott (Impromp2, 2003)
- 2005: Rewind That (Concord Jazz, 2006)
- 2007: Anthem (Concord Jazz, 2007)
- 2001–04: Two of a Kind with Donald Harrison (Nagel Heyer, 2008)
- 2008: Live at Newport (Concord Jazz, 2008) – live
- 2009: Yesterday You Said Tomorrow (Concord Jazz, 2010)
- 2010: Ninety Miles Project (Concord Jazz, 2011)
- 2010: Ninety Miles Live at Cubadisco (Concord Jazz, 2012) – live
- 2011: Christian aTunde Adjuah (Concord Jazz, 2012)
- 2014: Stretch Music (Ropeadope Records, 2015)
- 2016: Diaspora (Ropeadope/Stretch, 2017)
- 2016: Ruler Rebel (Ropeadope/Stretch, 2017)
- 2016: The Emancipation Procrastination (Ropeadope/Stretch, 2017)
- 2018: Ancestral Recall (Ropeadope/Stretch, 2019)
- 2020: Axiom (Ropeadope, 2020) – live
- 2023: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning (Ropeadope, 2023)
See also
In Spanish: Chief Adjuah para niños
