Grammy-Nominated, Genre-Bending Trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah to Play Blute Note, Oct 27-28

If you don't know anything about Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, take another glance at him in the photo above. Now take a guess as to what genre of music he plays. If the gold chains around his neck made you guess southern trap star, or if the gold shades that cover his eyes reminded you '70s funk and soul stars, then guess again. Yes, Scott is a jazz trumpeter, earning just about as much pedigree as that genre can offer – from being born and raised in New Orleans, to studying in the Big Easy's Center of Creative Arts before enrolling at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, to earning a Best Contemporary Jazz Album nod for his 2006 LP Rewind That.

However, like Kamasi Washington and Robert Glasper – jazz giants who have both graced Blue Note's stage in recent months – Scott mixes jazz traditions with modern styles for a boundary-pushing blend. That much is evident in the series of albums he has worked on releasing this year, The Centennial Trilogy, which consists of March's Ruler Rebel, June’s Diaspora, and the forthcoming The Emancipation Procrastination. During a recent interview for Paste magazine on the heels of Diaspora's release, Scott told me he draws on a vast array of musical influences:

“I’ll emulate something that moves me from traditional Korean music and mix that with Senegalese rhythms, a harmonic mode from India, and a bit of Delta Blues. And if I can synthesize all those ideas, and put them in a context where they are not only married, but you can’t even differentiate the cultures from each other, then that leaves you to wonder one thing: What am I saying about the people?”

Scott is equally worldly when it comes to the content and intent of his music. He sees jazz as envelope-pushing protest music, telling Rolling Stone this past March that his song "K.K.P.D." ["Ku Klux Police Department"], was inspired by an incident with several New Orleans police officers who pulled him over and aimed their weapons at him, and that if concert promoters have an issue with him performing it, then "It's your business; you can choose whether to pay me or not pay me. The thing is, you should also know that if you don't pay that your competitor will, and that's OK with me too."

Even his eccentric fashion choices are steeped in social consciousness. As he put it to GQ in a recent interview:
"You go all over the world and people are looking at you funny a lot of times if you're moving in a larger group of six-foot black guys. The thing is, though, if what you see in terms of my fashion, you don't recognize any of it, it creates a question. That question is all I need. Because the question will maybe stop you from concluding a lot. The question may say, 'I've never seen a necklace that looks like that. I wonder where that is from. I wonder where he's from.' So questions lead to more questions."

All that and more make Scott a one-of-a-kind artist. From his dazzling outfits to his spellbinding trumpet solos, attendees of his Beijing gig will surely – to paraphrase his latest album's title – declare this rebellious artist a ruler of jazz future.

Scott will perform at Blue Note on Oct 27 at 7.30pm and Oct 28 at 6.30pm. Tickets start at RMB 280. For more information, click here.

Photo: Rolling Stone, San Antonio Current