31.03. – Happy Birthday !!! Christian Scott, also known as Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah (born 1983, in New Orleans, Louisiana) is a two-time Edison Award winning (2010 and 2012) and Grammy Award nominated trumpeter, composer, producer and music executive.
Christian’s Grammy nominated international recording debut, Rewind That was called “arguably the most remarkable premiere the genre has seen in the last decade” by Billboard Magazine, earning Christian two prominent features on their cover and inclusion in their list of “Ones to Watch in 2006.” In June 2015, Christian established a partnership between his newly formed Stretch Music label and the lauded Ropeadope Music family. In the Fall of 2015, Christian’s debut release on Stretch Music/Ropeadope, titled Stretch Music, will be released along with the first interactive Stretch Music App offering for this generation of young improvisors. The recording and the app are set to be deeply impactful statements of the new genre.
Christian is the nephew of jazz innovator and legendary sax man, Donald Harrison, Jr. He began his musical tutelage under the direction of his uncle at the age of thirteen. After graduating from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) in 2001, Christian received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where he earned a degree thirty months later.
Since 2002 Christian has released seven critically acclaimed studio recordings and two live albums. According to NPR, “Christian Scott ushers in new era of jazz”. He has been heralded by JazzTimes magazine as “the Architect of a new commercially viable fusion” and “Jazz’s young style God.” Christian is known for developing the harmonic convention known as the “forecasting cell” and for his use of an un-voiced tone in his playing, emphasizing breath over vibration at the mouthpiece, widely referred to as his “whisper technique.” Christian is also widely recognized as one of the progenitors of “Stretch Music,” a jazz rooted, genre blind musical form that attempts to “stretch” jazz’s rhythmic, melodic and harmonic conventions to encompass as many other musical forms, languages and cultures as possible.
Through his partnership with Adam’s Instruments Christian’s signature line of horns, the Siren Trumpet, Sirenette and Reverse Flugelhorn, are revolutionizing brass instrument design all over the world.
Oscar winning director, Jonathan Demme, included one of Christian’s tunes in his June 2015 release, starring Merril Streep, Ricki and the Flash. One of Christian’s next projects includes scoring award winning writer-director and Spike Lee protégé, Kiel Adrian Scott’s, feature film debut, Epilogue. Christian also scored Kiel’s award- winning film, The Roe Effect and the 2015 Student Academy Award Finalist film, Samaria. Kiel Adrian is Christian’s identical twin brother and is the muse for songs in his name on two recordings, Rewind That and Christian aTunde Adjuah. Christian also scored the recently released an Unexpected History – The Story of Hennessy and African Americans by highly acclaimed documentarian, Llew Smith.
Since 2006, Christian has worked with McCoy Tyner, Prince, Marcus Miller, Eddie Palmieri, Mos Def (Yasin Bey), Thom Yorke and Solange Knowles, among other notable talents.
Christian, is a scion of New Orleans’ first family of art and culture, nephew of saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. and the grandson of the legendary Big Chief, Donald Harrison Sr., the only man to be Chief of four Black Indian tribes of New Orleans. The HBO series, Treme, borrowed the “Guardians of the Flame” name from the Black Indian nation Scott began “masking” as a member of with his grandfather in 1989.
Christian is also dedicated to a number of causes that positively impact communities. He gives his time and talents to a number of organizations which garnered him a place in Ebony Magazine’s 30 Young Leaders Under 30. His family’s not for profit organization, Guardians Institute, located in New Orleans’ 9th Ward, 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 the youth in underserved areas of New Orleans. Christian has been in the forefront of youth programming and has given private music lessons, spearheaded book give-a- ways, raised funds and purchased musical instruments in support of Guardians Institute. Since its post-Hurricane Katrina founding in 2006, Guardians Institute has purchased and distributed over 44,000 brand new books to the children of New Orleans.
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