Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah [formerly Christian Scott] is a two-time Edison Award-winning, Doris Duke Award in the Arts-winning, six-time Grammy-nominated, sonic architect, multi-
instrumentalist, composer, producer, and designer of innovative technologies and musical instruments. (including the Adjuah Trumpet and Chief Adjuah Bow). The NOCCA and Berklee College of Music graduate is the founder and CEO of Stretch Music, an App and Recording Company.
Adjuah is the Chief and Oba of the Xodokan Nation as well as a Grand Griot of New Orleans. He is the grandson of Louisiana luminary and legend, the late Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr. and the nephew of NEA Jazz Master saxophonist-composer, Big Chief Donald Harrison, Jr.
Since 2002, Adjuah has released fourteen critically acclaimed studio recordings, four live albums, and one greatest hits collection. He is widely recognized as the progenitor of “Stretch Music,” a 21st-century approach that asserts genre blindness and an ethnomusicological approach to limitless fusion.
Chief Adjuah’s work in education, community engagement, and cultural programming reflects a sustained commitment to expanding access to music and creative expression. From 2016 to 2019, he served as Artist in Residence and Artistic Director at Harlem Stage in New York, where he created and curated the Stretch Music Festival. During this time, he developed a wide range of programming including Stretch Music Intensives, masterclasses in collaboration with local high schools and institutions such as the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard, and interdisciplinary “informances”—a format merging performance and education— designed for youth audiences. His work also included drum circles, pop-up performances, and annual festival programming centered on accessibility and cultural exchange.
Since 2006, Adjuah has led international workshops and masterclasses for musicians at all stages of development, alongside providing private instruction with a focus on underserved communities. His efforts include ongoing instrument donation initiatives, both independently and in partnership with organizations, to support young musicians and educational programs. In New Orleans, his long-standing involvement with the Guardians Institute includes group and individual instruction as well as school-based “informances” that promote cultural literacy and engagement with the city’s musical traditions.
Adjuah has collaborated with Prince, Mos Def (Yasin Bey), Thom Yorke, McCoy Tyner, Marcus Miller, Flea, Eddie Palmieri, Robert Glasper, as well as heralded poet Saul Williams. His innovations have garnered him a PBS American Masters episode, JAZZFM’s Innovator of the Year Award, Jazz Journalist Association Trumpeter of the Year, The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, The Changing Worlds Peace Maker Award, a host of other accolades and honors.
Adjuah is an inaugural member of the Black Genius Brain Trust, an honor he shares with his writer/director identical twin brother, Kiel Adrian Scott. Adjuah has played himself in the hit films Bill and Ted Face the Music and Issa Rae’s, The Photograph, and became the face of the first-ever BMW XM vehicle.
