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Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah On World Cafe

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah performs live at WXPN's Non-COMMvention in Philadelphia, Pa., in May 2017.
Emma Silverstone
/
WXPN
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah performs live at WXPN's Non-COMMvention in Philadelphia, Pa., in May 2017.

Trumpet virtuoso Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is stretching modern jazz music to include the flavors of hip-hop, trap and West African percussion. His latest release, Ruler Rebel, is his first in series of three albums marking the 100th anniversary of the first commercially recorded jazz music. As Adjuah tells it, that recording, made by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in New Orleans in 1917, was originally conceived as satire with a racially-charged subtext. It's a history that hits home for Adjuah, who was born and raised in New Orleans' Upper 9th Ward, steeped in Mardi Gras Indian culture.

One and a half million people have seen the Tiny Desk concert that Adjuah performed at NPR's headquarters. If you're not one of them, go check it out — after you listen to this performance and chat, recorded in front of a live audience at World Cafe Live.

Copyright 2017 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.