Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

Jan 31 2020

Best of 2019 #16: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah – “Ancestral Recall”

 

Writing about the 2019 release by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah for The Bandcamp Daily, I explained that the source of the appeal is that the music “Is both forward-thinking and tethered to the past.  It is embraceable as a pop tune, yet it’s also a puzzle asking to be solved.”  And this ever-present dichotomy presented by the trumpeter has, with each subsequent recording, become increasingly concrete in the expression of these characteristics, even as the lines distinguishing between the two become increasingly opaque.  Adjuah’s music is a statement of what music was, what it is now, and what it yet still could be.  2019’s Ancestral Recall is the most crystallized vision of that statement to date.

Your album personnel:  Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah (trumpet, Adjuah trumpet, siren, sirenette, reverse flugelhorn, percussion, synth percussion, SPDSX, Malletkat, MPC, keyboards, synth bass, Pan African kit, drums, vocals, Sonic Arcitexture) and guests:  Saul Williams (vocals), Elena Pinderhughes (flute), Logan Richardson (alto sax), Corey Fonville (drums, SPDSX, Pan African Kit), Lawrence Fields (piano), Kris Funn (bass), Devan Mayfield, Chris Turner, Mike Larry Draw (vocals), Weedie Braimah, Themba Mkhatshwa, Amadou Kouyate, Munir Zakee Richard (djembe, mande drums, dundunba, sangban, kenkeni, ewe drums, sogo, atsimevu, agboba, kidi, kaganu, tambourine, kalimba, bata, congas).

Released on Ropeadope Records.

Music from New Orleans, LA.

I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Amazon – Bandcamp

By • Recap: Best of 2019 • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

Dec 31 2019

Now up: Best Jazz on Bandcamp in 2019

 

And here we go.

It was pretty much an impossible task to cobble together a Best of 2019 list for Bandcamp, limited, as I was, to just 15 slots.  Too many great recordings in 2019, too few opportunities to train a spotlight on them.  Rather than do a typical ranking, I went with the approach of presenting a cohesive picture of the modern jazz landscape, a snapshot of its diversity and how that leads to new and exciting forms of expression… including many that leave the 1950’s bop sound far behind.

Some of these albums will be familiar to you from the monthly recommendations columns to already hit The Bandcamp Daily, but there are also a few that will be new to this column.  2019 was the best year ever, and this list is just a fraction of the evidence supporting that claim.

And on that note, let’s begin.

Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.

Check out past recommendations by running through my contributor archives.

Have fun going through the list!

Cheers.

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