Christian Scott

The albums' launch commemorated the 100th anniversary of the first Jazz recordings of 1917.

The three releases include Ruler Rebel, Diaspora, and The Emancipation Procrastination.

Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (born March 31, 1983), (formerly Christian Scott), is an American jazz trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer.

He has been nominated for six Grammy Awards and is a two-time Edison Award winner.

He has been named the Jazz FM Innovator of the Year and the Jazz Journalists Association Trumpeter of the Year.

He has also received the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the Changing Worlds Peace Maker Award, and the Doris Duke Performing Arts Award.

Adjuah is the nephew of jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. Adjuah is the Chieftain of the Xodokan Nation of Maroons and Grand Griot of New Orleans, an honor bestowed by the Ashé Cultural Center as part of annual rites commemorating the Maafa.

Adjuah was born on March 31, 1983, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Cara Harrison and Clinton Scott III.

He has an identical twin brother, writer-director Kiel Adrian Scott.

He began studying jazz with his uncle, jazz alto saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr, when he was 12.

He attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), for high school and studied jazz under the guidance of program directors Clyde Kerr, Jr. and Kent Jordan.

Adjuah appeared on Harrison Jr.’s albums Paradise Found and Kind of New after joining his uncle's quintet at age 16.

He graduated from NOCCA in 2001.

As a Berklee student, he started Impromp2 Records and released his first recording, Christian Scott (2002).

As a student, he was a member of the Berklee Monterey Quartet, recorded as part of the Pat Metheny and Gary Burton-led Art:21 student cooperative quintet, and studied under the direction of Charlie Lewis, Dave Santoro, and Gary Burton.

Adjuah received a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he majored in professional music with a concentration in film scoring and graduated in 2004.

Adjuah was signed to Concord Music in 2005.

That year, he was featured on Nnenna Freelon's Grammy nominated Blueprint of a Lady.

His Concord Records debut album Rewind That (2006) received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

In 2007, he released Anthem and, in 2008, Live at Newport, a CD/DVD set.

Of this album, NPR raved "[Adjuah] Ushers In New Era of Jazz.”

He was named one of Ebony's 30 Young Leaders Under 30 in 2007.

2010 saw the release of Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, which received an Edison Award, and the naissance of Adjuah's "Stretch Music" concept.

Public radio station WNYC's Soundcheck has described Stretch Music as a fusion of "Trap Music (Southern hiphop, mixed with techno, dub, and dutch house), traditional West African percussion and New Orleanian Afro-Native American styles."

According to scholar Stuart Nicholson, Adjuah coined "Stretch Music" because he "wanted to stretch the definition of jazz beyond the prescriptivist definitions of music."

In 2010, Adjuah toured with Atoms for Peace, a supergroup that was formed by Radiohead's Thom York of Radiohead and featured Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea.

That same year, he formed Ninety Miles with David Sánchez and Stefon Harris.

The group spent a week recording with Cuban musicians Rember Duharte and Harold Lopez Nussa in Havana, Cuba.

From this collaboration came the 2010 studio album Ninety Miles Project, a 2011 documentary of the same title, and the 2012 album Ninety Miles Live at Cubadisco, recorded at the 2010 Cubadisco festival in Havana.

In 2012, Adjuah released the double studio album Christian aTunde Adjuah.

Reviewer John Fordham called it a "tour de force" and a "courageous and ambitious experiment."

The album garnered Adjuah his second Edison Award for Best International Jazz Artist.

Adjuah established his Stretch Music label in 2014.

That same year he signed a partnership with Ropeadope Records.

The inaugural release was 2015's album Stretch Music.

In 2017, Adjuah released three albums, collectively titled The Centennial Trilogy.

The Emancipation Procrastination was nominated for a 2018 Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.

In 2019 Adjuah released Ancestral Recall which received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.

His next album, Axiom, was released in 2020 and was recorded live over five nights at the famed Blue Note Jazz Club in March 2020, just before New York City’s live venues were closed due to the coronavirus.

Axiom received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.