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Musician Christian Scott is innovating jazz in the 21st century
Christian Scott is an innovator within the second-century jazz movement, whose genre of choice is welcoming. Keeping the feeling alive, his trumpet incorporates as many cultural backgrounds and musical elements as possible.
From a listener’s standpoint, the trumpet’s tone is urgent and passionate. It helps to channel a voice that needs to be heard.
On the whole, Christian Scott articulates a balance between unity and sticking to your roots. Going beyond the white noise, he links many genres with its true descendant.
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A music-bred man from the “Big Easy” Christian Scott was born on March 31 with his twin brother named Kiel Adrian Scott who is a writer-director of many Award-winning films like The Roe Effect and The Bobby Brown Story.
At 11-years-old Scott received a Bach TR300 trumpet from his mother and grandmother which then prompted him to play. According to the trumpeter, it was an easy decision. He was boxing at the time and enjoyed it very much.
Still, in comparison to the sport, the trumpet fell in line. Scott said that it’s a very violent instrument. Like boxing, it is physically demanding and you have to stay in pretty good shape.
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By the age of 12, Scott was studying jazz with his uncle Donald Harrison Jr. who happens to be a legendary saxophonist. Secretly he wanted to play the saxophone but then he had an epiphany.
If he played an instrument that was related to his uncle’s, it would probably be easier for him to apprentice with Harrison and go on the road. And so, he traveled and went on the roads at 13.
Once he hit 14, Scott took his niche in the jazz world further and attended New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). After graduating from NOCCA, Scott received a scholarship to attend Berkeley College of Music where he graduated in 2004.
Between 2003 and 2004 he was also a member of the Berkeley Monterey Quartet and recorded as part of the student cooperative quintet. While at Berkeley, Scott gave himself a rule where he couldn’t leave school or go to sleep unless he wrote two songs that day.
Oddly enough, his practice came into good use and Scott caught his big break in 2005 after catching Kenneth Shurtlift’s eye, a former distributor at Concord Records.
Since then, Christian Scott has garnered attention from across the world.
His music is attentive to detail as it upholds its main message.
For Scott, he found his music’s message in his younger years. While attending William T. Frantz Elementary School, which was once a segregated school, he felt a certain energy in the classrooms that he just couldn’t shake off.
Yet Scott discovered that music was the safe haven of it all. Often he saw that people were getting along once it was played in the same room. From then on, he vowed to change the world through his sound.
Stretch Music was only the start of Scott’s divergent collection. The album cover even indicates that its sound would break all barriers in traditional sound. From its display of a bent trumpet that warps into shape, the listener can expect an out-of-body experience.
Stretch Music has a way of keeping one on their toes. The first song “Sunrise in Beijing” comprises Scott and stellar flutist, Elena Pinderhughes who adds in a sultry tone. It begins with a Bianzhong, a set of bronze bells that play in unison.
After the drums seem to take over but then they merge in and announce the arrival of Scott’s trumpet. While the trumpet blares at a low tone in order to express what it’s like to wake up, the three instruments find their common ground.
Soon enough the instruments let Elena’s flute lead the way. In turn, it adds some flair to what it’s like to get the day started.
“Liberation over Gangsterism” gives us a melange of hip-hop and jazz while expressing the oppression of staying in the streets. The trickling piano riff upholds the track as it surfaces around Scott’s trumpet, Elena’s flute, and a snare drum.
In a way, Scott’s trumpet expresses this struggle the most through high ranged notes. It isn’t easy living in a dog-eat-dog world. And Scott’s vision is all bite.
Likewise, Scott’s latest album Ancestral Recall seeks to explain how this all began and will end.
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Taking one back to “Her Arrival,” Christian Scott assists us with our luggage. We find ourselves at the heart of Motherland — one that’s filled with high excitement and love. At once we are greeted by a tribe who help us understand their ritual through a light chant and snare drums.
But Scott’s trumpet stands as a focal point. Full of triumph, it screams “this is your home” and the song continues with its two instruments of choice. Then there’s “Prophesy.” This song captures the pain endured in the future with dysfunctional machines and war-cry from the trumpet.
Yet there is still hope for the generation. Only time can tell. To sum it up Christian Scott is a revisionist. He really just wants the world to see eye to eye. Pretty soon his music will connect a myriad of cultural groups. After all, jazz is the world’s first fusion.