Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s critique of the Danziger Bridge shootings
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.37660Keywords:
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, stretch music, Danziger Bridge, forecasting cell, improvised musicAbstract
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is an African American trumpeter, composer and producerfrom New Orleans, Louisiana. He has written compositions and performed improvisationscommitted to social justice themes. His cultural work is a natural extensionof his community service training directed by his grandfather Donald Harrison Sr. Hiscomposition 'Danziger' (2012) gives voice to the unarmed citizens injured and killed bypolice as they crossed the Danziger Bridge in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 'Danziger'extends from his stretch music theory which aTunde Adjuah describes as disassemblingand reassembling musical ideas so that his compositions and improvisations canbe understood holistically. While aTunde Adjuah's interpretation of the Danziger Bridgeshootings is funneled through the ontological cornucopia of his trumpet and referenceshis particular community, the message he sends out through his custom-made trumpetbell is universal because his critique supports everyday human rights.
References
aTunde Adjuah, Christian Scott (2012) Christian aTunde Adjuah. Concord Jazz. CD.
——(2019) Ancestral Recall. Ropeadope. CD.
Brady, Shaun (2012) ‘Q&A: What’s in a Name?’ Jazziz Magazine 29: 16. Gainesville, FL.
Collins, Patricia Hill (2012) On Intellectual Activism. Philadelphia. PA: Temple University Press.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1989) The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Bantam Books.
Greene, Ronnie (2015) Shots on the Bridge: Police Violence and Cover-up in the Wake of Katrina. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Kelley, Robin D. G. (2002) Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Kennedy, Al. (2010) Big Chief Harrison and the Mardi Gras Indians. Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub. Co.
Koritz, Amy, and George J. Sanchez (2009) Civic Engagement in the Wake of Katrina. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv65swnj
Lewis, George E. (2004) ‘Gittin’ to Know Y’all: Improvised Music, Interculturalism, and the Racial Imagination’. Critical Studies in Improvisation 1/1. https://doi.org/10.21083/csieci.v1i1.6
Lipsitz, George, and Barbara Tomlinson (2019) Insubordinate Spaces: Improvisation and Accompaniment for Social Justice. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Lock, Graham (1999) Blutopia: Visions of the Future and Revisions of the Past in the Work of Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, and Anthony Braxton. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822378471
Rosenthal, Rob, and Richard Flacks (2011). Playing for Change: Music and Musicians in the Service of Social Movements. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
Shepherd, John (1991) Music as Social Text. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Smith, Leo (1973) Notes (8 Pieces): Source—a New World Music. Creative Music. Connecticut: Self-published.
Storey, John (2019) Radical Utopianism: On Refusing to Be Realistic. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315201580-1
Tucker, Sherrie (2000) Swing Shift: “All-Girl” Bands of the 1940s. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822380900
Weston, Randy, and Willard Jenkins (2010) African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822393108