Chief Adjuah

Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah plays the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Theater Center on Friday, December 4, at 8 PM. It's his first Houston appearance, and if you've followed his work, you know he's not exactly a standard trumpet player.

Born Christian Scott in New Orleans in 1983, he legally changed his name in 2023 to reflect his West African ancestry. He now serves as Chieftain and Oba of the Xodokan Nation of Maroons and Grand Griot of New Orleans. The music family runs deep: he started training at 13 under his uncle, NEA Jazz Master saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., and is the grandson of Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr., a figure in New Orleans' Black Masking traditions.

He's also an inventor. He built the Adjuah Bow, a double-sided electric harp, and custom brass instruments he calls the Siren and Sirenette. Between 2012 and 2015, he introduced 'Stretch Music,' a genre-blind framework that stretches jazz into hip-hop, post-bop, and West African traditions. It's a way of playing that doesn't stay in one lane, and it's a good description of how he works across his recordings.

He's a six-time Grammy nominee, a two-time Edison Award winner, and a recipient of the Doris Duke Award in the Arts. Since 2001, he's put out 13 studio recordings, four live albums, and a greatest hits collection. Along the way, he's collaborated with Prince, Thom Yorke, Mos Def, McCoy Tyner, Flea, Robert Glasper, and Marcus Miller.

The show is at the Cullen Theater, 501 Texas Ave, Houston TX 77002, on Friday, December 4, starting at 8 PM.